Yahoo Finance Two million UK shareholders 'have little idea' of how much their stock is worth
Almost 2 million British shareholders have little clue of the value of the stock they hold and many thousands claim they are ignored by the companies they back.
Furthermore, an estimated 600,000 feel locked-in owing to an inability to sell or trade the shares they own in a private company.
And one in ten say they have never been given an opportunity to discuss options regarding their shares since making their original investment.
Peer-to-peer trading platform Asset Match learned that 11% of shareholders have held shares for longer than they intended to and that more than one in four (27%) – the equivalent of 1.8 million shareholders across the UK – do not know the current value of the shares they own.
More than a million shareholders (16%) would like to invest in other high-growth businesses but cannot because of an inability to sell their existing shares.
“Demand among investors to buy shares in Britain’s exciting high-growth businesses is rising all the time, particularly as alternative finance, angel investment and crowdfunding become more prominent,” said Stuart Lucas, co-CEO of Asset Match, which operates in the area of unlisted companies.
“However, this research uncovers a concerning problem being experienced by those who have already invested in these companies – namely, shareholders are too often ignored and pushed to one side.
“There are huge numbers of shareholders in the UK who want to sell their shares but cannot, don’t know how much their shares are actually worth, or wish to invest in other companies but are trapped in their current investments.
“Failure to address this issue will not only breed further discontent within Britain’s shareholder community, but also risks stunting the long-term growth of the private sector by not enabling investors to sell shares and re-invest in the next generation of scaling companies.”
Last week, the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) reported that only one in four wary British investors were planning to increase their exposure on the stock markets this year, as the majority wait to see the impact of Brexit talks and Donald Trump’s presidency.
Asset Match’s report concluded that shareholders had a lack of knowledge or ability to release the value of their equity investment.
Some 16% of the UK’s shareholders (1.1 million people) would like to invest in high-growth businesses but cannot because of an inability to sell their existing shares.
This issue was even more pronounced among shareholders aged 18-34, where 24% were keen to invest in high-growth companies but cannot because they are locked into their equity investments.
