Whitbread shares

Bigbrown

Hi
My mum died May 2018 and left me some shares. Solicitor is executor. It is taking ages to transfer them to me. Whitbread requested share certificate, which solicitor sent. I contacted solicitor 28th March 2019, and have now received an update. Link, who are the share rep for Whitbread state share certificate has been cancelled as there is no value in the shares. Apparently, solicitor was informed of this 25th January 2019, but i have only just found out. Shares are worth £50 each, so quite a sum of money. What does this mean and why have they done this. Any advice much appreciated, thanks

Malthusian

Lots of potential explanations. There may have been a share consolidation or another corporate action which meant new certificates were issued and the old ones became worthless. Or your mum lost the certificate and sold the shares without using it. You'll have to ask Link to find out exactly why. If the certificate is invalid then they're not worth anything.

bowlhead99

"There is no value in the shares" is at odds with "the shares are worth fifty quid each".

Were the shares she held actually the exact same type of shares as the Whitbread PLC 76p ordinary shares which trade on the stock exchange for fifty quid each? Or were they some old and different type of share, for example the cumulative preference shares issued by Whitbread Hotel Company, which were worth nothing like fifty quid each and were cancelled over a decade ago with compensation paid out at the time?

If they were the exact same type of share which currently trades on the stock exchange for £50 a time, the main reason the registrar might have for saying the certificate has no value is that the shares were already transferred by your mother to someone else (or sold on the stock exchange via a stockbroker) some time ago with the certificate not surrendered at the time. So the certificate she held was a worthless piece of paper.

Your solicitor should be able to clarify the comments provided by Link, as Link will have told them the reason (or would give an answer if requested to).

Is it perhaps all a misunderstanding, and a new certificate for the shares has been issued to you after Link transferred the ownership to you in January, while the old certificate in your mum's name no longer had any value from that point onwards and was cancelled rather than returned by post?

It is impossible for us to do anything other than speculate, on what has happened. Speaking to Link yourself may be fruitless even if you have a copy of the certificate. The solicitor who has already communicated with Link (and is presumably acting for your mum's estate so has the right to speak to them about her assets - which you might not) will be your best port of call.

Bigbrown

Thanks for the replies. My mum last received dividends December 2017 as she died May 2018, just before June's was due. Share info just states whitbread plc. I shall contact the solicitor tomorrow, thanks