Bristol & West Share Certificate 20 November 2022 at 1:38PM in Savings & investments 5 replies 180 views

Graeme.mcghee

I recently came across a certificate for 250 shares that I received when Bristol & West Building Society was demutualised in 1997, I moved house shortly afterwards and have not had any correspondence with them since. These are "8.125% Non-Cumulative, Non redeemable Preference Shares of £1 Each", do you know if they are still valid and if so how i can find out value, if any dividends are outstanding and how to sell them if I wished to do so ?

flaneurs_lobster

B&W are now a subsidiary of Bank of Ireland but as far as I can tell these shares are still traded as they were at issue. Worth about £110 quid each if I'm correct. 

Call their Head Office, they'll have someone who deals with shareholder queries. 

wmb194

flaneurs_lobster said:

B&W are now a subsidiary of Bank of Ireland but as far as I can tell these shares are still traded as they were at issue. Worth about £110 quid each if I'm correct. 

Call their Head Office, they'll have someone who deals with shareholder queries. 

Yes, they're still trading but no, 110p (£1.10) - note that the LSE's quote is "GBX" i.e. pence.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/BWSA/bristol-west-plc/company-page

wmb194

Graeme.mcghee said:

I recently came across a certificate for 250 shares that I received when Bristol & West Building Society was demutualised in 1997, I moved house shortly afterwards and have not had any correspondence with them since. These are "8.125% Non-Cumulative, Non redeemable Preference Shares of £1 Each", do you know if they are still valid and if so how i can find out value, if any dividends are outstanding and how to sell them if I wished to do so ?

They're still trading as BWSA on the LSE and, as flaneurs_lobster writes, it's now part of Bank of Ireland.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/BWSA/bristol-west-plc/company-page

Contact the share registrar. There should be a name on the certificate. You might have to chase down a successor company but it shouldn't be too hard. You should also ask about dividends but there's often a limit on how many years you can go back and IIRC there was a period during the financial crisis when they were suspended.

To sell them you can usually do it via the registrar but brace yourself to be ripped off. If you don't have your own stockbroker to lodge them with another option is to use a broker like x-o.co.uk, £5.95 per trade or if you don't want to open an account you could use its once off certificate service https://www.sellmysharecertificates.com/ for £25. Both are run by Jarvis Securities, a reputable broker.

The BoI's website re Bristol and West.

https://www.bankofirelanduk.com/bristol-west-plc/announcements/

flaneurs_lobster

wmb194 said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

B&W are now a subsidiary of Bank of Ireland but as far as I can tell these shares are still traded as they were at issue. Worth about £110 quid each if I'm correct. 

Call their Head Office, they'll have someone who deals with shareholder queries. 

Yes, they're still trading but no, 110p (£1.10) - note that the LSE's quote is "GBX" i.e. pence.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/stock/BWSA/bristol-west-plc/company-page

Ah, my mistake. I do hope the OP hasn't bought a new car on my say-so.

sparkiemalarkie

I have Bristol and West shares.
You should have been getting dividends twice a year.... usually about £10.50 every 6 months
The most recent dividend was paid about 2 weeks ago.

sx