Royal Mail Stock Holding – What to Do?

Ocelot

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.

Logged into HL and they did mention the offer on 4th July. No emails, though, just a secure message.

I have until 12pm on 22nd August to decide, like everyone else.

GANYMEDE23

I'm executor for my mum's estate & she has 227 IDS shares held with Equiniti. Would it be wiser to accept the £3.70 offer because Equiniti charge a minimum £70 to sell a holding? Assuming there will be no charge if accepting the offer 

where_are_we

I have to fill in acceptance of offer form before 20 August. However, I have recently read that a large cohort of city investors holding about a fifth of the shares believe the shares could be worth £4 to £5 if Ofcom reduces the Universal Service Obligation currently imposed on Royal Mail. Does my acceptance of the £3.70 which is on the table now negate me from benefiting in a subsequent better offer?

wmb194

GANYMEDE23 said:

I'm executor for my mum's estate & she has 227 IDS shares held with Equiniti. Would it be wiser to accept the £3.70 offer because Equiniti charge a minimum £70 to sell a holding? Assuming there will be no charge if accepting the offer 

Yes, correct, no fee for accepting the offer.

wmb194

where_are_we said:

I have to fill in acceptance of offer form before 20 August. However, I have recently read that a large cohort of city investors holding about a fifth of the shares believe the shares could be worth £4 to £5 if Ofcom reduces the Universal Service Obligation currently imposed on Royal Mail. Does my acceptance of the £3.70 which is on the table now negate me from benefiting in a subsequent better offer?

No, see my post above.

Linton

honestcove said:

Any thoughts please
Q1Is the 75% - 90% scenario a likely outcome. 
Q2 If the outcome is 75% - 90%, is there then another option to sell at the offer price (or another price), or are you then automatically in the position of owning unlisted shares of potentially minimal value.   

Once a company gets taken over the new owner buys your shares at the offer price or you are issued with equivalent shares in the new company depending on the offer.  Your shares are then cancelled. So you cannot be left with untradable shares.

You dont need to do anything, as far as you are concerned it just happens automatically.

wmb194

Linton said:

honestcove said:

Any thoughts please
Q1Is the 75% - 90% scenario a likely outcome. 
Q2 If the outcome is 75% - 90%, is there then another option to sell at the offer price (or another price), or are you then automatically in the position of owning unlisted shares of potentially minimal value.   

Once a company gets taken over the new owner buys your shares at the offer price or you are issued with equivalent shares in the new company depending on the offer.  Your shares are then cancelled. So you cannot be left with untradable shares.

You dont need to do anything, as far as you are concerned it just happens automatically.

This is a different to usual case. In the 75% to 90% scenario and you don't tender you keep your shares in the unlisted company. IIRC this occurred with the Sky acquisition and in that case IIRC the acquirer had an open offer to buy any shares people wanted to sell at the offer price. Obviously there's no guarantee that this would be this case with IDS.

Zoe02

GANYMEDE23 said:

I'm executor for my mum's estate & she has 227 IDS shares held with Equiniti. Would it be wiser to accept the £3.70 offer because Equiniti charge a minimum £70 to sell a holding? Assuming there will be no charge if accepting the offer 

GBP3.60

Equiniti fees are high and had to pay a fee as some of my cert were missing. Now converted to nominated account and with Iweb they charge £5 but not sure I want to sell.

wmb194

Zoe02 said:

GANYMEDE23 said:

I'm executor for my mum's estate & she has 227 IDS shares held with Equiniti. Would it be wiser to accept the £3.70 offer because Equiniti charge a minimum £70 to sell a holding? Assuming there will be no charge if accepting the offer 

GBP3.60

Equiniti fees are high and had to pay a fee as some of my cert were missing. Now converted to nominated account and with Iweb they charge £5 but not sure I want to sell.

£3.70 in total with the dividends. iWeb won’t charge the £5 if you take up the offer. It you don’t the danger is that you end up owning unlisted shares but it’s up to you.

Zoe02

wmb194 said:

Zoe02 said:

GANYMEDE23 said:

I'm executor for my mum's estate & she has 227 IDS shares held with Equiniti. Would it be wiser to accept the £3.70 offer because Equiniti charge a minimum £70 to sell a holding? Assuming there will be no charge if accepting the offer 

GBP3.60

Equiniti fees are high and had to pay a fee as some of my cert were missing. Now converted to nominated account and with Iweb they charge £5 but not sure I want to sell.

£3.70 in total with the dividends. iWeb won’t charge the £5 if you take up the offer. It you don’t the danger is that you end up owning unlisted shares but it’s up to you.

Why would it be unlisted shares?

It is not compulsory to sell mow.