Oran Hall | Tracking the validity of decades-old stocks

QUESTION: I have shares in Caribbean Cement Company and National Commercial Bank having bought in the 1970s. Please advise if these shares are still valid and how I can find out their value.

- Don

FINANCIAL ADVISER: Both companies still exist and are listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, the JSE, so you will be able to put your affairs in order where your ownership of these securities is concerned and determine their market value.

The registrars of these companies will prove critical to your resolving the issues around your ownership of the stocks and ensuring that your position regarding them is current so, if you have not been receiving dividends or bonuses because your address information is not up to date, you will be able to receive past entitlements and be in a position to receive future entitlements.

In the case of National Commercial Bank, the registrar is the Jamaica Central Securities Depository (JSCD), located at 40 Harbour Street, Kingston. Ownership in the bank was transferred to a newly listed stock, NCB Financial Group Limited, after the bank reorganised its structure. You should write to the registrar giving the numbers listed on the share certificates or send copies of the certificates. You should also give your contact information and send a copy of your TRN card.

Verification research

The registrar will then conduct research to verify that you do own the shares and how many. This will establish, for example, that the shares are still owned by you and determine how many additional shares you do own as a result of any bonuses that have been paid over the years as well as any dividends that might have been declared and paid but which you have not received.

In the normal course of business, you would have ensured that your address was current and would have received them. If you did not advise the registrar of address changes, your dividends and bonus certificates would have been unclaimed and thus be returned to the registrar.

The JCSD will advise you of its findings and let you know what steps to take to bring your position up to date. If there are certificates that cannot be accounted for, for example, you would need to complete forms of indemnity and you would have the option of receiving physical certificates or receiving them in immobilised form, that is, having them credited to your JCSD account. This is more efficient as it removes the risk of losing your certificates, thereby ensuring that you will receive your bonuses and dividends. Further, it makes it much easier and cheaper to sell your shares.

Sagicor is the registrar for Caribbean Cement Company. You could write to the Registrar Service Unit providing information on the shares you own or you could make a personal visit to the office. Take your certificates and an acceptable form of identification.

If you are not able to go yourself, you could ask a representative to do so, but you should send a letter to the registrar giving authority to deliver the information to your representative. This registrar will also do the necessary research and let you know the results.

Any registrar will want to be satisfied that you are who you say you are, that the shares exist and that you own them, so the process of verification must be done. Ultimately, forms of indemnity must be done if there are missing certificates.

Stockbroker

You could also engage a stockbroker to address the matter for you. The broker would relate to the registrar and the JCSD. Whichever approach you use, you will need to have an account with a stockbroker to be able to set up a JCSD account and to sell the shares when you decide to do so.

The JCSD, you may have noticed, has two roles. One is that of registrar and transfer agent; the other is the role of a depository for holding securities, which enables share transactions on the Jamaica Stock Exchange to be processed electronically by a book entry system.

There are several ways to determine the value of your shares. You can source the unit price of each stock from the stock market report in the Financial Gleaner, or you can call any stockbroker or the Jamaica Stock Exchange at 876- 967-3271.

Another option is to consult the stock reports on the JSE website. At May 30, the 'close price' of NCB Financial Group was $94.61, and of Caribbean Cement Company $38.05.

You should be able to have an early Christmas.

- Oran A. Hall, principal author of 'The Handbook of Personal Financial Planning', offers personal financial planning advice and counsel. finviser.jm@gmail.com