I attended, via the LumiAGM platform, the Court Meeting and General Meeting of Charles Stanley Group (CAY) to approve the takeover by Raymond James this morning. In other words, these were hybrid meetings with both physical attendees and web attendees.
The meetings were reasonably well run but there were no questions from attendees and I guess it will go through as the offer price is more than 40% higher than the previous closing price for CAY shares. But we will have to await the final vote results (a 75% majority is required plus court approval in due course).
The LumiAGM platform is easy to use and I would recommend it to other companies.
It is perhaps unfortunate that yet another stockbroker is disappearing, therefore reducing competition. Consolidation in brokers and platforms is the name of the game of late as size matters now that profits are being eroded by new entrants while operating and regulatory costs rise. Keeping up technically is now expensive for example. Raymond James is a good fit because they are primarily a full-service broker like Charles Stanley. But it may leave the execution-only Charles Stanley Direct platform out on a limb. I would expect they might sell that business to another execution-only platform operator in due course but the stated intention is not to change anything in the short-term.
At least this takeover will remove another holding from my portfolio, reducing it to 84 companies and funds, although a number of them are investment trusts and VCTs which require little monitoring. But with the market riding high, it’s a good time to weed out a few holdings.
Postscript: Based on the voting results, it looks like a done deal. Some 99.9% of shares were voted in favour, although the number of shareholders actually voting is astonishing low at only 72 (only 12.5% of those eligible). This should lead the Court to question the outcome, but will they? See here for the full results: https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/CAY/results-of-court-meeting-and-general-meeting/15138290
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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