Norwich Union Shares

Rhothgar

I recently submitted a PPI claim for my mortgage payment protection insurance and whilst searching for documentation came across some share documentation that I cannot even recall buying.

All I have is the prospectus for the Norwich Union flotation, a letter from Computashare with a Shareholder Reference Number and a slip from Cazenove Postal Share Dealing Service and a photocopy of a form I filled in to buy £5000 worth of additional shares at the Member's Offer Price of 265p.

The Cazenove slip state they have refunded £3168 and that I have an additional share allocation of 680 shares so in total my holding is 830 shares.

I started to try and trace them yesterday and was told by Computashare that whilst they can see I had a share holding they cannot tell me anymore about it because their records are so old and not necessarily complete!!!

I also tried Barclays Stockbrokers who are named on one of the original flotation documents and they know nothing also.

Can shares just vanish like this?

Computashare did say that with the Shareholder Reference Number beginning with the letter I, it means the shares are stored electronically. If it has a C, I would have a Certificate somewhere though in the photocopied form, I did tick the box for a certificate.

Naturally, I am quite worried that I have some shares somewhere and have no idea how to trace them down.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

eskbanker

What's been happening to the dividends? Have you changed address and/or bank details since the original purchase?

https://www.aviva.com/investors/manage-your-shares/ suggests that you can set up direct access to your shareholding if you have the shareholder reference number - if you're sure you bought the shares and haven't sold them then complain to Computershare, who can't just lose them!

PeacefulWaters

They're called Aviva these days. Does that help?

Rhothgar

eskbanker wrote: »

What's been happening to the dividends? Have you changed address and/or bank details since the original purchase?

https://www.aviva.com/investors/manage-your-shares/ suggests that you can set up direct access to your shareholding if you have the shareholder reference number - if you're sure you bought the shares and haven't sold them then complain to Computershare, who can't just lose them!

I know very little about shareholdings. I know I receive dividends on some old Birmingham Midshires shares but I have never received anything from the NU shares.

My main issue is I cannot recall ever having them, let alone selling them! Computashare did say that they can see I had some but they have no record of whether I still hold them or whether I have ever sold them?

It all seems very strange. If they have no record of me ever selling them then they must know where they are?

I havn't spoken with Aviva as I see no reason to. Would they know where they are? They'll just ask me for a reference number which I probably haven't got.

You'd think that you'd receive some kind of communication or statement once in a blue moon!

dunstonh

Norwich Union shares no longer exist, New shares were generated when CGU and Norwich Union merged back in 2000. Norwich Union shareholders received, for every 100 Norwich Union shares, 48 new CGNU shares and so on in proportion for any other number of Norwich Union shares.

Norwich Union shares were delisted 30th May 2000.
CGNU shares were renamed to Aviva with no changes to the shares in 2002.

You need to go to the Computershare

https://www.aviva.com/investors/managing-your-shares-faq/

eskbanker

Rhothgar wrote: »

I havn't spoken with Aviva as I see no reason to. Would they know where they are? They'll just ask me for a reference number which I probably haven't got.

As PeacefulWaters said, Norwich Union became Aviva, so if you have/had NU shares they'd now be shares in Aviva plc, hence my link to their share management pages.

Rhothgar wrote: »

I know very little about shareholdings. I know I receive dividends on some old Birmingham Midshires shares but I have never received anything from the NU shares.

[...]

You'd think that you'd receive some kind of communication or statement once in a blue moon!

Hence my question about whether you'd received dividends and if you'd changed address and/or bank. If you're a registered shareholder in a company you'll typically receive all sorts of correspondence as well as dividend payments, so if you haven't received anything then this doesn't look promising I'm afraid.

Rhothgar wrote: »

My main issue is I cannot recall ever having them, let alone selling them! Computashare did say that they can see I had some but they have no record of whether I still hold them or whether I have ever sold them?

It all seems very strange. If they have no record of me ever selling them then they must know where they are?

I'd agree that they should be able to provide details of all transactions relating to a shareholding, hence suggesting that setting up access to their online portal might unearth some useful info.

However, if the share registrars aren't able to help in any way then it seems unlikely that you'd have anywhere else to turn. Have you checked through your bank records from the time to confirm that you did indeed complete the purchase? Could anyone else in the household have sold them perhaps?

Rhothgar

eskbanker wrote: »

Hence my question about whether you'd received dividends and if you'd changed address and/or bank. If you're a registered shareholder in a company you'll typically receive all sorts of correspondence as well as dividend payments, so if you haven't received anything then this doesn't look promising I'm afraid.

Bank hasn't changed since 1997 as the cheque I signed is number 25 and I have a photocopy of the cheque sent. I will have all bank statement somewhere. That's the thing - somewhere!

Address hasn't changed either.

eskbanker wrote: »

I'd agree that they should be able to provide details of all transactions relating to a shareholding, hence suggesting that setting up access to their online portal might unearth some useful info.

I'll have a look into that.

eskbanker wrote: »

Have you checked through your bank records from the time to confirm that you did indeed complete the purchase? Could anyone else in the household have sold them perhaps?

Not as yet but I do have a piece of paper confirming a refund for the shares that couldn't be allocated and that slip from Cazenove clearly shows 830 shares.

Spoke with Lloyd today and they have no record even though that is who cashed the cheque! it must have been cashed if they refunded me £3168 from the £5000.

eskbanker

Rhothgar wrote: »

Spoke with Lloyd today and they have no record even though that is who cashed the cheque!

Worth bearing in mind that your bank has no obligation to keep old transaction records and indeed will have an obligation to delete them under the Data Protection Act, which insists that all companies only keep data for as long as it's deemed necessary, which, for the purposes of detailed transaction info, may well be six or seven years.

Computershare are likewise bound by the DPA, which may explain their earlier response to you.

It would seem like it's too late now but as a shareholder you also have a responsibility to keep records of your transactions, as when selling you have to be able to demonstrate to HMRC what the acquisition cost was, in order to establish any CGT liability.

talkshop

I have also found I have a Statement of Shareholding Norwich Union shares from 1997.

I have so far tried Aviva but they could not trace anything, and I have not received any dividends.

Has anyone else got anything back?

PJD

I have also just found a Norwich Union share certificate in my name.  Is it completely worthless now?

wmb194

PJD said:

I have also just found a Norwich Union share certificate in my name.  Is it completely worthless now?

Contact Aviva's registrar, Computershare. If you haven't actually sold them a very long time ago, they would have been superseded by a share certificate for CGNU and then it became known as Aviva. If you have a certificate for Aviva these may actually be the same shares. People have a tendency not to throw defunct certificates away.

https://www.aviva.com/investors/manage-your-shares/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviva