Teifi Valley Railway

Which direction was it going on the A487? that to my mind would be either going to or from the VOR which probably means it wasn't Alan George, possibly Margaret on travels?

 

Were you there...?

 

For those with an interest in limited Company paperwork : look at the TVR's latest attempt at the list of shareholders and numbers of shares held. No wonder Companies House washes its hands of any attempts to check the accuracy of the information!

 

On the Companies' House website, I would expect to see this list under "Filing history" but it's not there. What am I doing wrong?

 

Try the confirmation statement under "Filing History"

 

OK, so 69,787 issued and paid for and 30,413 unpaid which I assume is the remainder of shares available for issue limited by the companies Articles or whatever. That brings two things to mind, 1) Why aren't they selling the remainder to raise funds? and 2) the total issue would be 100,200 shares which seems to be a bit of an odd number? I wonder why there is the odd 200? Any idea from your time there?

Basically it looks like, as with most heritage railways, they have no idea of the actual shares holdings or share holders as so many shares would have been bought as a pseudo donation and the holders having now moved on, deceased, or the certificates just 'lost'

 

There was a mix-up in share numbering or counting about 15 years ago and new share certificates were issued then. Maybe it is a result of that "tidy-up".

 

So realistically how much money would be required to sort this project out and get it back on a even keel or even more to the point what is the business plan?

 

On the highlighted points:
1) There seem to be occasional small share issues from time to time, but I don't imagine anyone is keen to make a large investment
2) the previous confirmation statement showed 69,587 shares issued and 30,413 unpaid, ie exactly 100,000. Probably someone forgot to change the second figure on the latest return.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but what does "unpaid" mean in this context?

Steve B

 

bear in mind private limited companies cannot advertise the sale of shares.

 

companies have ‘issued capital’ (the shares sold or otherwise issued) and ‘authorised capital’ ( the total amount the company can issue, voted on by shareholders at a general meeting). The difference is ‘unpaid’ or ‘not issued’. Nothing unusual.

Typically a company limits the amount of ‘unpaid’ shares so that someone can’t turn up and buy all the unpaid shares and take over the company.

In the heritage railway sector the SVR, for example, has 11m shares issued and 3m unissued. If you turned up with a cheque* for the 3m unissued shares you still wouldn’t have a controlling share.

Other examples are available

*” What’s a cheque, Granddad?’”

 

Many thanks - I wasn't thinking it was strange, just never come across it before.

Steve B

 

I don't think there is a compulsion to sell shares even if you turn up with a cheque. Directors can decline to sell, or to decline to sell all.

 

My understanding too

 

Would the directors not have to answer some rather awkward questions though?
"Sorry the company went down the pan. We needed capital, but when someone offered it, we decided we'd rather see the company go to the wall. Sorry for all your worthless shares" doesn't seem quite right.

 

They might, but then they might have a similar set of questions to answer if the sale resulted in a takeover that was uncongenial to the organisation's stakeholders - especially if that takeover were to go wrong.

 

I would suggest they first need a very good charity lawyer and a paid company secretary, then follow this up with a new business plan.

I don't know just how many members they have, but maybe they need to think of re-organising themselves as a CIC and sorting out a link between that and a Charitable Trust which will own the trackbed and other assets.

 

Makes sense thanks. I didn't think to check last years statement.

Management seem happy to have volunteers doing the work and getting the whole line back in action without any overall plan or direction. Senior management there seem to be very reluctant to make (or maybe just publish) any plan or strategy which, to me, seems strange when they want public and volunteers support. What are their intentions future regarding locomotive provision, site developments or infrastructure improvements? No-one seems to know.