Shares Held In EU After Brexit

Kontiki

I have some Airbus shares which I think are held abroad, are there any implications after Brexit  I should consider. I bought my shares as part of employee sharesave schemes when I was working for Airbus before I retired in 2006. Due to Covid there has been quite a drop in value but I'm not in need of the cash & would prefer to keep them as they will take a while to pick up again but wonder if Brexit is likely to create any issues with this.

bowlhead99

Not really. Airbus have shareholders from all over the world (e.g. investors in US, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia are not part of the EU and are not prohibited from owning or trading the shares). There are always stockbrokers willing to trade shares on foreign markets whether we're in the EU or not. 

The shares are back to the price they were in late 2015 or early 2017, so not a complete wipe-out, and more than they were in the mid-2000s when you left, but the future is certainly uncertain. As the shares are valued in Euro, if the UK has a more-successful-than-expected exit from the EU you might expect the pound to strengthen and the Euros be worth fewer pounds. However, the opposite is also possible, so shouldn't be the main consideration on whether it's wise to hold shares in a plane-maker. I suppose the 50% drop since the start of the year is a good lesson in why people shouldn't be too overinvested in shares from their current or previous employer, but if you'd have sold up and invested instead in something more 'balanced' you wouldn't have seen the price double in the three years leading up to it


-Edit - you mention the shares are, you think, 'held' abroad. The shares trade on a foreign stock exchange but that doesn't mean they have to be 'held' with a foreign agent or broker. If you are bothered about it, you could transfer to a UK broker instead. One potential positive thing in the share price halving is that there would be a lot less capital gains tax to pay (if any) if you were to cash out at today's price rather than February's price. So if the shares are not already in an ISA or pension wrapper you could use the current relatively-lower price as an excuse to sell them now, and then buy them back in an ISA, avoiding CGT going forward.

Kontiki

Thanks for the reply, I agree hindsight is a wonderful thing, given I bought my shares at really good prices over many years I was at Airbus & I get a good dividend every year I'm happy to leave them unless there is a massive problem coming. They are worth quite a bit but I do have other shares & investments just tend to be a bit lazy about doing anything with them. Also have quite a few of BAe shares again bought as sharesave schemes.