SAYE - Cant sell shares

housebuyer143

I joined a sharesave scheme and it matured on 1st Sept. I put in my maturity instructions and they were supposed to be bought and sold on 1st Sept. It turns out they have not been able to do it because there is not "enough liquidity" and they have not got anyone to buy them...

They cannot tell me how long we need to wait or what to do in the meantime. I am worried because they have taken to money from my sharesave savings account and closed that account, but I now have no way to get my money back or to get my share money. I should have received a £20k payout (£14k being my original investment) and all the time I am waiting I am losing 6% interest on it. 

Has this happened to anyone else, are there options? Would the shares sell easier if I got the share certificate and did it through my own dealing account?

[Deleted User]

Hi,

''not enough liquidity'', are these listed on AIM or some other matched sell/buy market?

housebuyer143

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

''not enough liquidity'', are these listed on AIM or some other matched sell/buy market?

I'm not sure. The company selling them is signal shares. 
It seems nuts because this is a FTSE 250 company so I fail to believe they can't sell any shares. 

My husband got his share certificate today for the ones I put into his name, so we are going to sell these through his dealing account and see if we have any trouble doing this. 

I really don't know what happens to my other shares though.

wmb194

housebuyer143 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

''not enough liquidity'', are these listed on AIM or some other matched sell/buy market?

I'm not sure. The company selling them is signal shares. 
It seems nuts because this is a FTSE 250 company so I fail to believe they can't sell any shares. 

My husband got his share certificate today for the ones I put into his name, so we are going to sell these through his dealing account and see if we have any trouble doing this. 

I really don't know what happens to my other shares though.

Where there isn't enough liquidity to sell all your shares in one go you can try making multiple smaller trades e.g., try £5k rather than £20k. If you can find the normal market size (NMS) data for a company's shares it can give you an idea of how many shares you ought to be able to sell in one go.

housebuyer143

wmb194 said:

housebuyer143 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

''not enough liquidity'', are these listed on AIM or some other matched sell/buy market?

I'm not sure. The company selling them is signal shares. 
It seems nuts because this is a FTSE 250 company so I fail to believe they can't sell any shares. 

My husband got his share certificate today for the ones I put into his name, so we are going to sell these through his dealing account and see if we have any trouble doing this. 

I really don't know what happens to my other shares though.

Where there isn't enough liquidity to sell all your shares in one go you can try making multiple smaller trades e.g., try £5k rather than £20k. If you can find the normal market size (NMS) data for a company's shares it can give you an idea of how many shares you ought to be able to sell in one go.

Unfortunately, because the scheme has to administrator the SAYE trade and they must have hundreds of thousands to sell, I think they are trying to block sell them.
I can't adjust how many I sell unfortunately, they made me put in my instructions 2 weeks ago and they will only sell them all in one go along with all the other people who opted for maturity on the 1st.

wmb194

housebuyer143 said:

wmb194 said:

housebuyer143 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

''not enough liquidity'', are these listed on AIM or some other matched sell/buy market?

I'm not sure. The company selling them is signal shares. 
It seems nuts because this is a FTSE 250 company so I fail to believe they can't sell any shares. 

My husband got his share certificate today for the ones I put into his name, so we are going to sell these through his dealing account and see if we have any trouble doing this. 

I really don't know what happens to my other shares though.

Where there isn't enough liquidity to sell all your shares in one go you can try making multiple smaller trades e.g., try £5k rather than £20k. If you can find the normal market size (NMS) data for a company's shares it can give you an idea of how many shares you ought to be able to sell in one go.

Unfortunately, because the scheme has to administrator the SAYE trade and they must have hundreds of thousands to sell, I think they are trying to block sell them.
I can't adjust how many I sell unfortunately, they made me put in my instructions 2 weeks ago and they will only sell them all in one go along with all the other people who opted for maturity on the 1st.

Ah, I see. Many FTSE250 companies have relatively small market caps and also aren't particularly well traded so I'd imagine a large number in one go could be a problem.

housebuyer143

wmb194 said:

housebuyer143 said:

wmb194 said:

housebuyer143 said:

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

''not enough liquidity'', are these listed on AIM or some other matched sell/buy market?

I'm not sure. The company selling them is signal shares. 
It seems nuts because this is a FTSE 250 company so I fail to believe they can't sell any shares. 

My husband got his share certificate today for the ones I put into his name, so we are going to sell these through his dealing account and see if we have any trouble doing this. 

I really don't know what happens to my other shares though.

Where there isn't enough liquidity to sell all your shares in one go you can try making multiple smaller trades e.g., try £5k rather than £20k. If you can find the normal market size (NMS) data for a company's shares it can give you an idea of how many shares you ought to be able to sell in one go.

Unfortunately, because the scheme has to administrator the SAYE trade and they must have hundreds of thousands to sell, I think they are trying to block sell them.
I can't adjust how many I sell unfortunately, they made me put in my instructions 2 weeks ago and they will only sell them all in one go along with all the other people who opted for maturity on the 1st.

Ah, I see. Many FTSE250 companies have relatively small market caps and also aren't particularly well traded so I'd imagine a large number in one go could be a problem.

Apparently it's never happened before, this problem. But we had a really low buy price (so lots of staff opted in with high quantity), a really high sell price and an unstable market. Not a good recipe. 

If my husband can offload his with little problem in the next few weeks and I still don't have mine, I'll see if they will issue me with the share certificate instead. 

housebuyer143

For anyone reading the problem is block trading. They are trying to offload the shares not in the main market because selling them like that will destroy the share price..
Because they need a buyer to purchase tens of thousands of shares and demand for this sector is down they are struggling. I imagine they will negotiate a deal lower than the current share price in the coming week and it should be paid out.

So yes, my husbands in theory will be easy to sell once they are in his dealing account and will likely achieve more than mine will.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

thanks for update.

Curious though why no interest from a buyer, is it some obscure company in a relatively dormant sector?

housebuyer143

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

thanks for update.

Curious though why no interest from a buyer, is it some obscure company in a relatively dormant sector?

It's the banking sector which at the moment is very up and down and TBF the stock price doesn't suck so they are probably wanting more than big investors feel it's worth. 
The price has been on the slow decline the last week so maybe it will be more appealing to someone soon. 

sevenhills

housebuyer143 said:

They cannot tell me how long we need to wait or what to do in the meantime. I am worried because they have taken to money from my sharesave savings account and closed that account, but I now have no way to get my money back or to get my share money. I should have received a £20k payout (£14k being my original investment) and all the time I am waiting I am losing 6% interest on it. 

Sounds dodgy to me, what do you mean by a £20k payout?

What company have you bought shares in, "the banking sector"?