Cashing in Stagecoach group plc share certificate

donniem27

I have an old share certificate for stagecoach group plc which was issued to me in 2017 after I left the company which was part of a company share program I was enrolled in. The certificate was issued by Capita and was for 1,744 shares.

I have now gone to try and cash in the certificate but I cannot as apparently the companies share were compulsory bought by DWS and all shareholders were notified and shares were then delisted and shareholders share holdings were turned into cash holdings and I had to reply to the correspondence excepting the offer to get the money for my shares from the purchase.

I however did not receive any correspondence to my address that my shares were registered to and where all my previous correspondence including my share certificate were issued to and I now do not know what to do.

Have I simply lost all my money and now have a worthless piece of paper or do Stagecoach or a company have the cash holdings for my shares and if they do, how do I find out/get the money for my share certificate.

wmb194

donniem27 said:

I have an old share certificate for stagecoach group plc which was issued to me in 2017 after I left the company which was part of a company share program I was enrolled in. The certificate was issued by Capita and was for 1,744 shares.

I have now gone to try and cash in the certificate but I cannot as apparently the companies share were compulsory bought by DWS and all shareholders were notified and shares were then delisted and shareholders share holdings were turned into cash holdings and I had to reply to the correspondence excepting the offer to get the money for my shares from the purchase.

I however did not receive any correspondence to my address that my shares were registered to and where all my previous correspondence including my share certificate were issued to and I now do not know what to do.

Have I simply lost all my money and now have a worthless piece of paper or do Stagecoach or a company have the cash holdings for my shares and if they do, how do I find out/get the money for my share certificate.

When you say you, "tried to cash them in" who did you actually speak to? Did the registrar not have your address or bank details? Were you receiving dividends?

No, just contact the registrar and it should be able to give you the money if all of the shares have been compulsorily purchased. There are scenarios where they're not purchased and you could end up being a shareholder in an unlisted company but it would be unusual. Either way, Stagecoach's old registrar will be able to tell you. Stagecoach's 2021 annual report states that the registrar was Link Asset Services, see screenshot below.



The DWS offer document can be found here, 105p per share: https://www.dws.com/en-gb/our-profile/media/media-releases/dws_infrastructure/

Chary1

I also have some Stagecoach Shares, which I inherited from a relative. I received some dividends after they were transferred into my name but nothing for a long while and the paperwork was missing.  I was contacted completely out of the blue by a company called MUFG who said they were acting on behalf of Stagecoach Group which had been compulsory purchased. They asked me to fill in a form and supply them with a £50 admin fee together with the share certificate, so that the value of my shareholding could be recovered. I filled in the form, sent off a cheque for the fee but couldn’t find the share certificate, which I later discovered was still with the solicitors after probate. I explained this on the form. 

MUFG then wrote back and asked for an indemnity fee of nearly £300 for the missing certificate. When I telephoned MUFG to ask for further information about the basis of the indemnity charge and what options I had, and to basically find out whether it was worth my while paying out £300, I met with a very unhelpful and aggressive response. The operator asked for a lot of information from me, but wouldn’t tell me how many shares I had, or anything else unless I gave him my bank account details. I totally understand data protection and security but at this point I was getting a bit alarmed at the amount of personal information I was handing over to a person and a company I had never heard of and knew nothing about. Even when I put the phone down, this person was calling me back repeatedly and I had to block the call number. 

Since then I have emailed and written to MUFG, with no substantive response. I did look up their website, which seem genuine enough (but don’t they all?), and they are listed as Registrars, which is not Link Asset Services as previously noted on the share certificate now retrieved from the solicitors.

Now I have the share certificate, I presume I don’t need an indemnity but I don’t want to send it off to MUFG if (a) they’re not actually what they say they are or (b) if there’s nothing to be gained ie its worthless. Is there anyone I can complain to about their behaviour - its not the experience I’ve had with other Registrars that I’ve had to deal with.   

Any suggestions on what to do next? 

eskbanker

Chary1 said:

I was contacted completely out of the blue by a company called MUFG who said they were acting on behalf of Stagecoach Group which had been compulsory purchased.

When was this?  The compulsory purchase was in 2022, and you should have received plenty of documentation about it?

https://www.stagecoachbus.com/corporate/financial#tab6

wmb194

Chary1 said:

I also have some Stagecoach Shares, which I inherited from a relative. I received some dividends after they were transferred into my name but nothing for a long while and the paperwork was missing.  I was contacted completely out of the blue by a company called MUFG who said they were acting on behalf of Stagecoach Group which had been compulsory purchased. They asked me to fill in a form and supply them with a £50 admin fee together with the share certificate, so that the value of my shareholding could be recovered. I filled in the form, sent off a cheque for the fee but couldn’t find the share certificate, which I later discovered was still with the solicitors after probate. I explained this on the form. 

MUFG then wrote back and asked for an indemnity fee of nearly £300 for the missing certificate. When I telephoned MUFG to ask for further information about the basis of the indemnity charge and what options I had, and to basically find out whether it was worth my while paying out £300, I met with a very unhelpful and aggressive response. The operator asked for a lot of information from me, but wouldn’t tell me how many shares I had, or anything else unless I gave him my bank account details. I totally understand data protection and security but at this point I was getting a bit alarmed at the amount of personal information I was handing over to a person and a company I had never heard of and knew nothing about. Even when I put the phone down, this person was calling me back repeatedly and I had to block the call number. 

Since then I have emailed and written to MUFG, with no substantive response. I did look up their website, which seem genuine enough (but don’t they all?), and they are listed as Registrars, which is not Link Asset Services as previously noted on the share certificate now retrieved from the solicitors.

Now I have the share certificate, I presume I don’t need an indemnity but I don’t want to send it off to MUFG if (a) they’re not actually what they say they are or (b) if there’s nothing to be gained ie its worthless. Is there anyone I can complain to about their behaviour - its not the experience I’ve had with other Registrars that I’ve had to deal with.   

Any suggestions on what to do next? 

MUFG is Link: "Under its new ownership, Link Group will be rebranded as MUFG Pension & Market Services." Don't worry, it's legitimate.

https://www.mpms.mufg.com/en/media/link-group-becomes-mufg-pension-market-services-backed-by-one-of-the-largest-global-financial-institutions/