A FTSE100 Deputy Company Secretary writes...

We have recently been approached by Worthington Clark (WCL), an Australian asset-tracing company that specialise in recovering lost or unclaimed assets on behalf of individuals, corporations and charities.  WCL has advised that it is expanding its services into the UK and has indicated its intention to make a request under s116 of the Companies Act for access to our register of members.  It states that the purpose of the request would be to identify and assist shareholders or beneficiaries in reconnecting with lost or unclaimed shareholdings.  Where a shareholding is successfully recovered, WCL would charge the beneficiary a fee of 20-30% of the value recovered.

Our registrar has indicated that WCL has approached a number of UK-listed companies on a similar basis.

I would be interested to hear whether others have received similar approaches and, if so, how you have assessed the request from a proper purpose perspective and whether you are inclined to provide the register to them.