Royal Mail Stock Holding – What to Do?

Ocelot

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

I sold most of mine at £6, like I did with Bradford & Bingley shares (just as well), but held onto 20%.

I haven't received any notifications or offers. I always assumed smaller shareholders had no option but to sell if a takeover was taking place.

How do you hold them? No, shareholders in the same class usually have all the same rights. There can be issues if you're domiciled abroad, particularly in the US where laws will prevent residents there participating fully or at all.

The problem is that some stockbrokers aren't very interested in participating in shareholder democracy so you need to push them* and if you hold them via certificates the registrars aren't always very good at sending out the communications promptly e.g., see recent threads on the National Grid rights issue and complaints about Equiniti.

*And even then they might show no interest, which is my recent experience with Trading212. However, with the National Grid rights issue it was perfectly fine.

Originally I had a share certificate, but they are now held with HL in a nominee account(?)

wmb194

Ocelot said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

I sold most of mine at £6, like I did with Bradford & Bingley shares (just as well), but held onto 20%.

I haven't received any notifications or offers. I always assumed smaller shareholders had no option but to sell if a takeover was taking place.

How do you hold them? No, shareholders in the same class usually have all the same rights. There can be issues if you're domiciled abroad, particularly in the US where laws will prevent residents there participating fully or at all.

The problem is that some stockbrokers aren't very interested in participating in shareholder democracy so you need to push them* and if you hold them via certificates the registrars aren't always very good at sending out the communications promptly e.g., see recent threads on the National Grid rights issue and complaints about Equiniti.

*And even then they might show no interest, which is my recent experience with Trading212. However, with the National Grid rights issue it was perfectly fine.

Originally I had a share certificate, but they are now held with HL in a nominee account(?)

Yes, that's a nominee account. If HL hasn't given you the option to choose then you should ask. In my experience stockbrokers are bad at giving their customers the opportunity to vote London listed shares at annual meetings but for things like takeovers and rights issues they're usually not bad. Unrelated to IDS but even iWeb gave me the opportunity to vote some shares last week re cancellation and tender.

[Deleted User]

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

I sold most of mine at £6, like I did with Bradford & Bingley shares (just as well), but held onto 20%.

I haven't received any notifications or offers. I always assumed smaller shareholders had no option but to sell if a takeover was taking place.

How do you hold them? No, shareholders in the same class usually have all the same rights. There can be issues if you're domiciled abroad, particularly in the US where laws will prevent residents there participating fully or at all.

The problem is that some stockbrokers aren't very interested in participating in shareholder democracy so you need to push them* and if you hold them via certificates the registrars aren't always very good at sending out the communications promptly e.g., see recent threads on the National Grid rights issue and complaints about Equiniti.

*And even then they might show no interest, which is my recent experience with Trading212. However, with the National Grid rights issue it was perfectly fine.

Originally I had a share certificate, but they are now held with HL in a nominee account(?)

Yes, that's a nominee account. If HL hasn't given you the option to choose then you should ask. In my experience stockbrokers are bad at giving their customers the opportunity to vote London listed shares at annual meetings but for things like takeovers and rights issues they're usually not bad. Unrelated to IDS but even iWeb gave me the opportunity to vote some shares last week re cancellation and tender.

Am with Iweb didn't get any communication but only have 359 shares from the IPO. 

wmb194

Zoe02 said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

I sold most of mine at £6, like I did with Bradford & Bingley shares (just as well), but held onto 20%.

I haven't received any notifications or offers. I always assumed smaller shareholders had no option but to sell if a takeover was taking place.

How do you hold them? No, shareholders in the same class usually have all the same rights. There can be issues if you're domiciled abroad, particularly in the US where laws will prevent residents there participating fully or at all.

The problem is that some stockbrokers aren't very interested in participating in shareholder democracy so you need to push them* and if you hold them via certificates the registrars aren't always very good at sending out the communications promptly e.g., see recent threads on the National Grid rights issue and complaints about Equiniti.

*And even then they might show no interest, which is my recent experience with Trading212. However, with the National Grid rights issue it was perfectly fine.

Originally I had a share certificate, but they are now held with HL in a nominee account(?)

Yes, that's a nominee account. If HL hasn't given you the option to choose then you should ask. In my experience stockbrokers are bad at giving their customers the opportunity to vote London listed shares at annual meetings but for things like takeovers and rights issues they're usually not bad. Unrelated to IDS but even iWeb gave me the opportunity to vote some shares last week re cancellation and tender.

Am with Iweb didn't get any communication but only have 359 shares from the IPO. 

The number of shares you own shouldn't matter; log-in to your account and look for, "corporate actions" in the menu and see if there's something there. There might be a, "1" in the, "unactioned optional events" column. If so, click on your account name.

buyhighselllow

I bought maximum allocation at the original  sale that was allowed, ie £750's worth. With reinvested dividends it looks like this sale will yield c £1250, which is a return of around 5% per year. I'm happy to take that and reinvest into a similar paying investment. I don't need the hassle of anything else. 

[Deleted User]

wmb194 said:

Zoe02 said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

wmb194 said:

Ocelot said:

I sold most of mine at £6, like I did with Bradford & Bingley shares (just as well), but held onto 20%.

I haven't received any notifications or offers. I always assumed smaller shareholders had no option but to sell if a takeover was taking place.

How do you hold them? No, shareholders in the same class usually have all the same rights. There can be issues if you're domiciled abroad, particularly in the US where laws will prevent residents there participating fully or at all.

The problem is that some stockbrokers aren't very interested in participating in shareholder democracy so you need to push them* and if you hold them via certificates the registrars aren't always very good at sending out the communications promptly e.g., see recent threads on the National Grid rights issue and complaints about Equiniti.

*And even then they might show no interest, which is my recent experience with Trading212. However, with the National Grid rights issue it was perfectly fine.

Originally I had a share certificate, but they are now held with HL in a nominee account(?)

Yes, that's a nominee account. If HL hasn't given you the option to choose then you should ask. In my experience stockbrokers are bad at giving their customers the opportunity to vote London listed shares at annual meetings but for things like takeovers and rights issues they're usually not bad. Unrelated to IDS but even iWeb gave me the opportunity to vote some shares last week re cancellation and tender.

Am with Iweb didn't get any communication but only have 359 shares from the IPO. 

The number of shares you own shouldn't matter; log-in to your account and look for, "corporate actions" in the menu and see if there's something there. There might be a, "1" in the, "unactioned optional events" column. If so, click on your account name.

Thanks checked nothing but don't think I want to buy any more.

The shares has not done that well with my original £750 and reinvested all dividend paid now about profit of 

£318.61

valuation 

£1,176.80

Only went up with the sale happening. 

Caroles54

I  too am finding the IDS paper work confusing. I strictly don't want to sell, especially abroad. I got my small share holding when the PO was privatised to stop big companies taking over/having too much control and with the hope one day it would be renationalised. I feel I am being forced to sell as there is no mention of what happens if you do not accept and even on the internet it is not clear.

Hammer_Time

I believe if you do not wish to sell just ignore the letter. 

wmb194

Caroles54 said:

I  too am finding the IDS paper work confusing. I strictly don't want to sell, especially abroad. I got my small share holding when the PO was privatised to stop big companies taking over/having too much control and with the hope one day it would be renationalised. I feel I am being forced to sell as there is no mention of what happens if you do not accept and even on the internet it is not clear.

Look for my comments up thread; you'll only be forced to sell if 90%+ of shares accept the offer. Otherwise it'll either fail and this will be forgotten about or you'll become a shareholder in an unlisted company (75%+).

benny5

wmb194 said:

Caroles54 said:

I  too am finding the IDS paper work confusing. I strictly don't want to sell, especially abroad. I got my small share holding when the PO was privatised to stop big companies taking over/having too much control and with the hope one day it would be renationalised. I feel I am being forced to sell as there is no mention of what happens if you do not accept and even on the internet it is not clear.

Look for my comments up thread; you'll only be forced to sell if 90%+ of shares accept the offer. Otherwise it'll either fail and this will be forgotten about or you'll become a shareholder in an unlisted company (75%+).

Out of interest, should the takeover fail, what will happen to those that have ‘surrendered’ their holdings either electronically or by post?

Will the certificates be returned/electronic holdings reinstated?