Minutes of the June ExEC meeting held on 3rd June 2001

 

Present:

Julian Kern

Terry Emmony

Phil Jones

Roy Brown

  

Apologies:

Andrew Smillie, Debbie McDonnell, Steve Spence, Peter Sweeney, Julie Grundy,

Cynthia Brooke, Ann Nurse, Mike Arkless, Di Lane, Rod Wood, Ron Pierce, Paul Holden.

 

 1) Terry has posted the monthly position on the ExEC website for you all to view.

The overall position at the end of May was down to just under 3% profit, with Vodafone and Energis being the major losers in the month.

 

2) We reviewed the recent performance of Psion, Computacenter and Wiggins with a view to selling any that seemed right for sale.

Psion has improved by almost £100 in the month and has shown progress over the last 2 months, Computacenter had a disappointing month but we felt the fundamentals of the company were still sound. Wiggins, while losing slightly since the end of April had some encouraging news / views on the web, and we decided to recommend not sell any shares this month, but to put a sell target price of 60p on Wiggins. Your views please.

 

3) As there were insufficient members present to be quorate, we were unable to make any decisions but a couple of suggestions were put forward. The first 3 companies we already hold shares in. The advantages of buying further shares include making use of only one selling fee when we sell shares, and in the case of Wiggins and Thus, diluting our shareholding, making the breakeven point more achievable.

 

i) Advance Visual Communications - has had favourable press reports recently and our shareholding has moved into profit in the month - Julian is going to post one article on the www.execinvestments.co.uk website for you all to read.

 

ii) Wiggins - after some uncertainty, there have been recent press reports about Wiggins investing in further ventures, and expectations in some areas of a healthy increase in the share price in the coming months. This, we admit, is a risky investment.

 

iii) Thus - Having bought shares in April at 44p, the share price has now risen to 63p, so we are showing a healthy margin on those latest purchases, and the breakeven point is much closer than it was. Further investment now would dilute the breakeven point further. This, we also admit, is also a risky investment.

 

iv) Stagecoach - having been hit recently by the railway problems, the future looks good. We might put this on hold to do more research before the July meeting.

 

We decided to recommend a £400 investment in Advance Visual Communications.

Please respond by email with your vote on this investment by Friday 8th June

 

4) TAX. As we have passed the end of the tax year, we need to advise each of you, and the Inland Revenue of the gains we have made. The club is not liable for tax, the members are.


Advice on all aspects of tax on share ownership is available on the Proshare web site at www.proshare.org In the search facility, type "Taxes on Share Ownership" and follow the link.

 

In summary we each have to report our personal share of the profits realised on the sale of shares (gains liable to Capital Gains Tax, but we each have an annual allowance of £7,100 of gains before we have to actually pay any tax) as well as any interest or dividends. We have already paid basic rate tax on these, but we are likely to have to pay higher rate tax, so we will have to pay the difference between the basic rate tax on interest and dividends that has already been deducted, and higher rate tax on those interest & dividends received.

Terry has worked out our individual shares of the gains and interest & dividends.

 

As an investment club, we have to tell the Inland Revenue of all the members shares of the profits, and send each member an identical form for each of us to include on our own tax self assessment form.

  

In order to do this, Terry needs to know all of our tax offices and tax references (it will be quoted on the Notice of Coding or P60 that we each receive).

 

Therefore, please would you all tell Terry your Tax Office and Tax reference.

The sooner you do this, the sooner you will have the details to complete your Self Assessment form. Please tell Terry by the end of June anyway.

 

5) In case, anyone is interested in putting any more money in the fund, you can do so at any time, either as a lump sum, or an increase in your monthly subscriptions.

 

Next meeting 12.30 on Sunday 1st July at the Griffin. Please advise me of attendance numbers prior to that.