Shares sold without my consent

[Backtobasics]

I left my old company last year and took my shares in the firm with me. I contacted a large staff share management company last week who manage the companies shares to ask how many shares I have.

I was told that they were all sold and converted into a share certificate on the 10th of Jan, this is without my consent and they didn't even contact me to tell me they had done this, and I dont have a share certificate still.

I can see nothing in any documentation and this appears highly irregular.

Can anybody advise?

[williaa68]

I think you may be mixing two things. They may not have been sold, they may simply have moved from an omnibus account where they were held in dematerialised form (possibly something like you used your employee number to access via the work intranet?), and now they've been certificated so the company and the registry to some extent wash their hands of you? I'd call them back and ask for further and better particulars, like if they certificated them where they sent the certificate? Ultimately what the company can do with your shares after you have left will be governed by the terms of the plan under which you acquired them in the first place. Do you have a copy of that or a mate still at the company who can get you one?

[Backtobasics]

Thanks for the reply, I phoned a couple of mates today, they read it as its in our gift to decide when to sell them. Whats equally concerning is the exceptionally long time between selling and them not sending me the certificate.

[LeoSayer]

Do companies / registrars issue share certificates any more?

My guess is that the shares have been transferred into your name on the share register. ie. they were transferred out of the nominee company name as mentioned in the post above and then transferred into your name.

Hopefully it's all electronic so there's no share certificate, because if it's lost then it's a right ballache to recover from that.

[Backtobasics]

good advice guys, thats exactly whats happened. After a light toasting from me the firm completed and sent me the share certificate today. Just need to get the shares sold now, I expressed some amazement that I was receiving a certificate but at least its in my hand.