2017

Harry Braund, Chairman of UKSA London & South East, took part in an interview with Share Radio's Ed Bowsher.
You can hear the interview by clicking here .

A paper by David Pitt-Watson and sponsored by Pension Insurance Corporation,‘The Purpose of Finance’, shines a spotlight on an industry where ‘……many of its activities fail to achieve the purpose that they could and should be pursuing.’

The paper determines the four purposes of the industry to be:
• Safekeeping of assets
• Facilitating payments
• Risk mitigation
• Intermediation

This company was born out of Helphire which hit hard times following the financial crash. It seems to be making good progress now but what business is it really in? Is it a provider of outsourced services to the insurance industry or is it a good old-fashioned car-fleet management business?

The Study's interim conclusions support many of the findings of a report submitted by UKSA to the regulator (then the FSA) five years ago. UKSA's response to the study, together with its report of 2012, can be found here.

This is a fast-growing provider of generic pharmaceutical products. From an investor’s standpoint, however, one would like to hear how the rapid increase in revenues can be turned into increased profitability by increasing Gross Margins – which is likely to mean changing the product mix, putting pressure on suppliers, increasing prices, or a mixture of all of these.

In mid-February 2017 UKSA submitted its response to the government’s Green Paper on corporate governance to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). The response to the Green Paper was developed jointly with ShareSoc. The full Green Paper response can be read here.

Better Finance, the European umbrella body of which UKSA is a member, commissioned a major study to identify potential falsely active funds (“closet indexers”) and is calling on regulators to investigate.

This long-established family firm has a reputation for good management. The balance sheet looks exceptionally strong with cash and debtors of £78m and current liabilities of just £26m, which includes a £25m pension deficit. But is the financial management of the company too conservative or is it an excellent investment for investors who like to sleep easily at night?

The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has rejected a resolution to implement a Shareholder Committee, submitted jointly by ShareSoc and UKSA.

UKSA’s response to the FCA consultation makes fundamental points about individual responsibility, consumer education, transparency, consumer vulnerability, regulatory philosophy and the Regulator’s relationship with the regulated.