Sale & Transfer Services Resealing Grant of Probate Tips

Resealing Grants of Probate Tips

• EURONEXT Shares
• WARNING - "PUMP & DUMP"
• Canadian Pacific Railways
• ShareGift

EURONEXT Shares

Be careful if you have shares in companies quoted on this market, as unlike the more established markets, there are no market makers which match buyers with sellers for a price (usually close to the market price).

EURONEXT sells shares on an auction based system, which means you simply offer the shares for sale, and see if anyone makes an offer to buy. If no offers are forthcoming or at the right price, you cannot sell the shares, and so selling the same quickly simply cannot be done, and you can be forced to lower the price to a level well below the "market" price in order to attract buyers.

WARNING - "PUMP & DUMP"

Recently we received a large pile of share certificates in different companies from a client for valuation, and sale, the client having been told that the shares were worth a considerable sum of money.

On investigation by us we found that most of the shares were "penny stocks" and were quoted on extremely small stock exchanges in the USA (where you can have publicly quoted shares without them actually being on NASDAQ or Wall Street). Many of these shares had the "Rule 144 Restriction"on them, which means that the shares cannot be sold until a time period (usually two years but now closer to six months) has expired. Usually the "pump and dump" sellers also state that the shares cannot be sold without a legal opinion being obtained. The cost of such legal opinion is usually in the region of £1,000.

We found that many of the shares were in companies where trading had been suspended by the Securities and Stock Exchange Commission ("SEC"); or were the subject of an SEC investigation; or the market was so thin that any sale would move the price; and usually the value of the shares was less than US$0.02.

In this case, our brokers reported the matter to the FSA for investigation (no action likely in that area - the shares are USA shares), and our brokers warned its staff and brokers of the shares in question. This was a tragic case of "pump" up the price and then "dump" the shares before the duped shareholder knows what is happening. In this case it did not help that the client was fairly elderly into the bargain.

Canadian Pacific Railways

In 2002 Canadian Pacific Railways was broken up, and divided into Fairmont Hotels, Cenovus, CP Ships, Encana and Fording. Some of these companies have since the break up been taken private such as Fairmont, Fording and CP Ships.

A cash payment is being made for the shares in Fairmont, Fording and CP Ships which has been extended until about 2011 (the date of expiry varies with each company), and so it is important if you hold shares in any of these companies that you claim the monies you are entitled to receive, as otherwise once the deadline passes the company concerned will no longer have any obligation to pay you the cash to which you are entitled.

ShareGift

It is common for shares in US Companies to be issued as a percentage of a share such as 6.738 shares. In such cases, as the stock brokers and the market as a whole can only deal in complete shares, there is always the problem of the part of the share remaining (i.e. the 0.738 of a share as set out above). In such a case you can transfer this part of a share to ShareGift who will then add it to other similar shareholdings and in due time the shares will be sold and the proceeds given to Charity. ShareGift can organise such sale for no cost to the donor, and the donor can specify which charity is to benefit from the proceeds of sale in due time.

It is not uncommon for small shareholdings to be such that the costs of administration and of sale exceed the value of the shareholding, and again you can benefit a charity by using ShareGift.