Buying my employers shares

seancollier

Hi

My employer is about to embark on a massive growth project and is expected to increase profits massively over the next 5 years.

They've secured funding from private investors and they are now offering remaining shares to employees. I don't have a lot of money to put in (maybe £500!) but I suppose I've got to start somewhere.

I don't really know much about buying shares, and I don't think I'm investing enough to speak to an IFA. Can anyone shed some light into the situation??

Many thanks

Sean

Jonbvn

If the outlook for the company and hence their shares is so good, why didn't the private investors snap-up all the shares?

The above notwithstanding, 500 quid is hardly a fortune, so it should be worth the risk, on the assuming their prospects are not overstated.

Mr_Mumble

Sean, based on your DFW post you really need to pay off the overdrafts and CC bills where you're paying 17%. Have you read the MSE start savings page? :
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/which-saving-account

seancollier

Hi!

Yeah I d have some debts to pay off but I think that this opportunity may be too good to miss!

Lazy_Runner

I was in a slightly different situation, but I hope you willl consider it.

I had the opportunity to buy my employer's shares through a sharesave scheme. This was an IT company. 5 years later when the sharesave had matured, the stockmarket and IT shares in particular had dived. To make it worse, the market for IT services had also gone through the floor. The upshot was that I was made redundant and I did get my sharesave money back, but no gain from the shares. (If my sharesave had matured 2 years earlier, my shares would have been worth 4 times what I put into the sharesave).

So, if the market takes a dive both work wise and stock market wise, you may lose your job and shares could be worth less than you paid for them.

Beware is all I am saying.

imho

I bought shares in the company i worked for . £30 a month on a roll for 5 years ,every year you can buy more shares so i was buying another £30 a month every year then on year 5 the 1st lot of shares i can sell at the market rate .I bought the first lot of shares at £4.60 sold them for £15 + last lot i sold was £21 each !
Staff were allowed to buy at 20% less than the public.Best thing i ever did was buy my works shares .
They do drop a lot but then they go up again. Its just knowing when is a good time to sell !