Woolwich Share Certificate

Marie_marie2

I recently found a Woolwich Share Certificate dated 07July 1997 for 518 shares.  I wrote to Equiniti, as over the years I realize I have never received any update about my shares being taken over by Barclays.  They emailed me to confirm that the total holding was disposed of on 10 July 2002.
Can they do this without my consent and is there anything I can do to retrieve my shares? 
Please help. Many thanks

coachman12

Is the certificate in your own name ? If so, you should have been the only person to "dispose" of the shares. If it's in another name ( a relative perhaps?), then that person probably "disposed".
What is the name of the registrar on the certificate ? Get in touch with that registrar., they will tell you.
Failing all else, consult a stockbroker for a small fee ( nothing that will hurt your finances, honestly----but get quote first of course------some nice kind broker might do it for nothing if you tell him/her that you intend to put your future business his/her way but you just want to sort out this small outstanding matter first).............best of luck.

wmb194

@ coachman: Equinti is the registrar and a stockbroker won't be any help.

@ Marie: It sounds like you sold them.  Do you have any bank statements from the time showing a deposit of >£2,000? Judging from the price chart something happened with Barclays in c.April 2002 as its share price tanked from around 575p to about 400p in July and it continued to go lower into 2003 so it wouldn't surprise me if you had taken action.
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EthicsGradient

Woolwich was taken over by Barclays in 2000: 

Shareholders are being offered £1.64 plus 0.1175 Barclays share for each Woolwich share. No one can be sent part of a share -cheques will compensate for fractions.
If holders do nothing they will receive Barclays' set formula when the deal is finalised - and there is no chance it will not go through. Big investors are backing this deal so even a major small shareholder vote for continuing Woolwich independence will be futile.
Investors can opt for all shares either for tax reasons or because they think Barclays is a good bet (see above). Alternatively they can go for cash and no shares - this choice could be popular with investors who are fed up with the stock market.
But there are no guarantees that investor choice will be honoured. Barclays has structured the deal so that it knows exactly what Woolwich will cost - it intends to issue 179m new shares and pay out around £2.7m in cash no matter how shareholders use the mix'n'match option.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2000/sep/09/personalfinancenews.demutualisation

When the offer became unconditional, they were allowed to force all the remaining Woolwich shareholders to accept it (this is usually when 90% have accepted).
Presumably you had moved address between 1997 and 2000, and they were unable to find you, so they gave you the default option, but sent the Barclays shares and cheque to your old address, where they disappeared. Why they would then sell the Barclays shares in 2002, I can't tell. Was there more detail from Equiniti than "disposed of on 10 July 2002"? 

Marie_marie2

Thank you all for your kind advice. The Share Certificate is in my own name and I have lived at the same address over the years. The Registrar is Lloyds Bank.
I don't recall selling my shares, if I did surely Equiniti would have a note on file stating the reason - they have been very vague with their response via email and you can't speak with them as its not urgent.  A Stock Broker may only get the same information. I'll try to contact the Registrar. 
Many thanks

wmb194

Marie_marie2 said:

Thank you all for your kind advice. The Share Certificate is in my own name and I have lived at the same address over the years. The Registrar is Lloyds Bank.
I don't recall selling my shares, if I did surely Equiniti would have a note on file stating the reason - they have been very vague with their response via email and you can't speak with them as its not urgent.  A Stock Broker may only get the same information. I'll try to contact the Registrar. 
Many thanks

Lloyds TSB Registrars - I presume Lloyds Bank Registrars before it merged with TSB - became Equiniti in 2007 and Barclays' website states that Equiniti is still its registrar.

Thrugelmir

Marie_marie2 said:

Thank you all for your kind advice. The Share Certificate is in my own name and I have lived at the same address over the years. The Registrar is Lloyds Bank.
I don't recall selling my shares, if I did surely Equiniti would have a note on file stating the reason - they have been very vague with their response via email and you can't speak with them as its not urgent.  A Stock Broker may only get the same information. I'll try to contact the Registrar. 
Many thanks

If you didn't take any action, i.e. choose an option at the time. Your holding would have been ultimately liquidadated and a cheque issued to you.  Once Barclays had over the required level of acceptances. 

Marie_marie2

The Share Registrar said their records show my shares were taken off the register by means of sale or transfer to another broker. They could not give further details as due to data protection they only keep records for 6 years, my query went back to July 2002. 
I would like to have known for sure which one.  If it was a sale then I would have trusted they sent a cheque, although I don't have any statements going back that far to check.  If it was by transfer then to which broker?,  as my shares could still be kept somewhere and I feel I can't put closure to my query. 
I wanted to share my feedback incase someone else has a similar issue.

Many thanks

coachman12

It's really annoying , Marie, that your mystery cannot be solved. I don't suppose your Bank keeps records of cheques from 2002 ( silly me    ).
Sorry you couldn't find any bright ideas on Forum to help.

Marie_marie2

Thank you for your advice.
Good idea. I'll contact my bank and see if they have my records from 2002, may be too far back, but I'll give it a try.