AboutPaul Henneman Expertise Stock forecasting and fair market valuations.
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Question I mentioned in my original question that Lever Brothers went on to merge and become Unilever... the world's first multinational corporation. I called their Investor Relations office and had a call back saying that the shares were worthless or worth the original value of £40... this made no sense to me. The stock as a 7% Cumulative Preference Stock and not an ordinary stock... apparently that is the reason. I'm not happy and very confused. Should I give up and take Unilever's word as the final word?
Answer David,
Thank you for the follow up question!
I would suggest two things: First, try contacting them a second time, to see if you can speak with someone else. If you get the same answer, then you know that you at least have the official corporate answer, and you were not misled by a mis-informed person. The higher up the chain you can get the better, as managers or department heads have a much higher amount of knowledge about things that don't fit the normal inquiry. Introduce yourself as someone not familiar with investing terminology, but as a possible shareholder you would like things explained to you as simply as possible. Have that certificate at hand when you call.
The second suggestion would be to contact a lawyer to have your certificates reviewed. This would cost a few hundred dollars at the very minimum, so it is a very tough call on if you want to take on that cost.
This relates to the dividends that are paid out, and if the company did not do well, you could easily have lost the dividends based on this. Dividends are basically paid out to preferred stock holders first, and if there are not enough to go around, you are left hanging if your stock is not preferred.
But, I am not sure how this pertains to the value of the actual shares (this definition refers to dividend payments, not actual shares). Unilever does currently trade on numerous international exchanges, and is dual listed on the Netherlands and London exchanges. That means that the shares are traded in public, and you could theoretically sell your shares.
I am also not clear on if your shares are preferred or common. That is something else to find out.
Best case, get a manager or department head on the phone at Unilever, and offer to fax your certificate to them for complete information on what has happened to your specific shares. Find out how many shares of Unilever you have based on your original certificate and the deal that was made between the company that issued your shares and Unilever. There may have been some sort of conversion, a certain number of the original companies shares for a certain number of Unilever shares. Simple math would then be able to determine the number of Unilever shares you have, then based on the current stock price what that is worth.
Best of luck to you, and please do not hesitate to follow up with me if I can be of any additional service,
Sincerely,
Paul Henneman
President
ValuEngine Inc
www.ValuEngine.com
