advice on subscription shares with Standard Life please

happyhero

Hi, my Stepfather is 88 and has the start of Parkinsons and has Dementia, my mother is 76 and good health, they have asked me to help them with bits and pieces (we do have POA for my Stepfather).

I posted a about a week ago trying to decipher my Stepfathers investments/pensions, well after a few calls I have got a little further and now realise there is more than one policy going on in his Standard Life paperwork. I ended up looking on the registrars site, Computer share, as they advised which showed holdings and values etc, and he has 2 lots of shares and 2 pensions not shown on the site.

Two new questions have come from this new information, with the 2 lots of Standard Life shares:-

one is STANDARD LIFE EQUITY INCOME TRUST PLC ORDINARY SHARES OF 25P for which he has 8474 shares worth £38,133 at £4.5000 per share today

and the other is STANDARD LIFE EQUITY INCOME TRUST PLC SUBSCRIPTION SHARES OF £0.01P for which he has 1694 shares worth £2103.10 at £1.2415 today

First question, what are subscription shares (I googled a bit) does he actually own these as it mentions rights to buy them and would he get any dividends off these subscription shares?

Secondly should he do anything with them, ie should/could he change them to ordinary shares?

xylophone

You refer to Standard Life shares - these are not shares in Standard Life plc but shares in an Investment Trust managed by Standard Life Investments.

See http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/s/standard-life-equity-inc-trust-ord-25p


https://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/IT_Sub_FAQ/getLatest.pdf

Have you seen the above?

happyhero

xylophone wrote: »

You refer to Standard Life shares - these are not shares in Standard Life plc but shares in an Investment Trust managed by Standard Life Investments.

See http://www.hl.co.uk/shares/shares-search-results/s/standard-life-equity-inc-trust-ord-25p


https://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/IT_Sub_FAQ/getLatest.pdf

Have you seen the above?

Ok thank you very much for that, its very helpful, however at the risk of appearing dumb can you just confirm that I understand this correctly.


By having subscription shares my Stepfather does have shares that can be sold although they are not the ordinary shares? But how would you sell them? Could you sell them through a broker as with any shares or does he need to do it through Standard life (we have no certificate and so expect they are held electronically if that’s the right word)?


Am I right in thinking he would sell the subscription shares making a profit straight away as the top part of the link says he would have been given a bonus issue of 1 subscription share for every ordinary share held?


Am I right in thinking that he would be mad not to take up the offer to buy the Ordinary shares as the offer is to buy them at £3.20 when they are now in fact worth about £4.50, and so an instant increase in capital? And if then immediately sold they would give him his second load of profit on the Standard Life holdings.


I assume you must sell the subscription shares to buy the ordinary shares or otherwise how does that part work?


What happens after end of December 2016 to the Subscription shares are they lost or what happens to them?


Also its not 100% clear but he does not seem to get dividends on the subscription shares is that correct?

xylophone

http://www.iii.co.uk/research/LSE:SLET/news/item/1102115/exercise-subscription-shares-reminder

The above, in conjunction with the previous link may assist - suggest you contact the registrar for guidance?

happyhero

Thanks very much for all your help xylophone, the only bit I think I am still not sure of and interested to know is what happens to the Subscription shares after December 2016 if the option to buy the Ordinary shares at the favourable price is not taken up.

Looking in my Stepfathers pamphlets etc it says "If Subscription Share Rights are not exercised by an appointed trustee by 14th January 2017 all Subscription Share Rights shall lapse" but what does Lapse mean, will the subscription shares still be worth more or less the same without the option to buy the ordinary shares from then?

I assume they are not lost but are they negatively effected by the loss of rights after this date or do they just carry on as shares in their own right?

xylophone

https://uk.standardlifeinvestments.com/IT_Equity_Income_Prospectus/getLatest.pdf

See page 8 of the above and check with the registrar.