A FTSE250 Company Secretary writes...
Like many other listed companies we have an evergreen approval in place to provide Argus Vickers with our register of members every month. However, this month Argus Vickers have requested to disclose the information to Perane and Co Ltd. Perane receives shareholder data for the purpose of connecting the estates of deceased persons with their shareholdings.
I am interested to hear if other companies have received this request and if you agreed to provide the data to Perane.
Many thanks in advance.
We received the same and considered the request in some detail, including obtaining legal advice. On the basis that we don’t currently have an asset reunification project running ourselves, it was felt that it would be beneficial to shareholders with lost entitlements. We have made it clear that the information may not be shared with Perane’s sister company which provides data offerings.
Yes we also received a similar request from Argus Vickers. Advice from our registrars was that many of their clients have received such proper purpose forms and that the large majority have agreed the proper purpose.
Coincidentally we have recently also received a flurry of requests from Harrisons Asset Search Solutions attempting to locate any shares held by deceased persons. They did not explain any rationale for believing this might actually be the case for our specific register and we did wonder whether it might be a scutter gun approach that should be discouraged. I will be interested if other companies have had the same experience.
Yes, we have provided approval for the information to be shared on the basis that it is good for both the holder/estate and the Company, and therefore members as a whole (more efficient register).