Q&A

Some years ago I invested 2,000 in Stentor plc and later forgot about it, having moved in the interim.

Stentor

I cannot now trace the company. Someone suggested the company has closed or was taken over. Can you help? Are the shares worthless?

Mr B.H., email

Stentor, the business telecoms group founded by Mr Patrick Cruise O'Brien, had a brief if turbulent existence as a stock market company. It listed on London's Alternative Investment Market in April 1996 at a price of 72 pence.

The company struggled to break into the telecoms market and by 1998 was shipping losses at a rate that distressed even its auditors Pricewaterhouse -Coopers. In the year to the end of March 1998, it lost IR£6.7 million. Five months later it was a further £5.4 million in the red and suffering a sizeable hole in shareholder funds. Despite an injection of funds, losses continued to mount - the company lost £11.17 million in the year to the end of March 1999.

By the following year it was no more, having accepted an offer from Northern Ireland telecoms group Nevada.tele.com. Nevada paid 29.3 pence cash per share for the company whose stock was, at the time, languishing at 28p sterling - a long way from its 195 pence peak. At the time, the group funding it since 1998 indicated it would put no more money in, leading to more dire warnings from the company's auditors.

Nevada.tele.com was a joint venture between British telecoms group Energis and Northern Ireland power generator Viridian. Nevada.tele.com struggled to make profits, logging accumulated losses of £14 million by March 2002.

That was enough to persuade Viridian to get out and it sold its half-share in the company to Energis for a nominal sum.

The most recent figures for Energis Ireland, the former Nevada.tele.com, show accumulated losses of 60.6 million by March 2004.

Anyway, I cannot determine how many shares your € 2,000 would have got you without the date of purchase. If I were you, I would contact the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and find out who was the company's share registrar at the time it floated.

This company, in turn, should be able to tell you how to go about getting your limited payout on the shares.

Ardagh shares

In June 1998, I invested in a special purpose investment account (SPIA) through Davy's which included 7,818 Ardagh plc shares. The SPIA was closed at the end of 2001 and I received certificates for this holding and also a certificate for a similar 7,818 shares in Ardagh Glass Ltd - preferred ordinary no par value.

Recently I accepted an offer from Ardagh Glass to redeem one for three of these latter shares at 4 each. The original price of the Ardagh plc shares was 1.58 each but this was later adjusted to 1.10 each on dissolution of the SPIA due to tax considerations.

I am wondering, when calculating my CGT liability, will I be able to offset part of the original cost of the Ardagh plc shares against the proceeds?

In the recent Ardagh Glass report, it stated the most recent traded price for our Ardagh Glass shares was 2.45 and the combined price for one Ardagh Glass and one Ardagh plc share was €3.65. The market price in The Irish Times only quotes Ardagh plc at around 1.25. Can these holdings be sold separately?

The reason I am in the dark is because when the shares were in Crest form in the SPIA, I received no announcements from the companies in which I held shares, or from the brokers, and I no longer deal with Davy's.

Mr P.T., Kilkenny

Despite the fact that Ardagh spun off its glass-making operations at the beginning of last year, I understand there is as yet no formal determination from the Revenue Commissioners on how the price of the original Ardagh plc shares breaks down into the value of the two separate entities now in place - Ardagh Glass and Ardagh plc (which this week changed its name to South Wharf plc in an effort to further distinguish the two companies).

My understanding from sources in the company is that it views the split as a 50/50 operation.

This is on the basis that every holder of Ardagh shares prior to the demerger of the glass manufacturing operations continued to hold one share in the plc and also received one share in the private, Guernsey-registered Ardagh Glass that was spun off.

I am not sure on what date the demerger became effective - somewhere between February 28th, 2003 and March 5th as far as I can see.

In any case, it is clear that you can offset part of the purchase price, suitably indexed for inflation and allowing for expenses incurred in acquisition and disposal, when calculating the capital gains tax liability.

As to selling shares in either of the two companies, there is nothing preventing you selling shares in one and not the other. One of the provisions of the spin-off was an offer to buy out the interest of plc shareholders in the private company.

At that time, the price offered was € 1.10 a share but the company guaranteed to buy back 5 per cent of the shares in the private company at a price of 1.50 on the first anniversary of the spin-off, € 1.625 on the second anniversary and € 1.75 on the third anniversary. So there was a mechanism in place to flog shares in one while holding on to shares in the other.

The reason you see only the price of the plc in The Irish Times is that it is the only element that is now a public company. While shares in the private company can trade, it is a grey market bound by totally different rules. You will note that Ardagh Glass said in its report that the most recent traded price for the shares was € 2.45. There is no obligation on the company to provide a market for the shares although, to be fair, it has facilitated trading.

First Active

I switched from EBS to a First Active current account mortgage on the basis that I tend to have sizeable cash on deposit rates. I lost faith in equity fund managers. I reckon that my spare cash is now "earning" at least a mortgage-level rate as opposed to a deposit-level rate and that this would be a sufficient justification (until I find some higher rate equally safe - and entirely liquid - home for the cash). Does my position have a general lesson for your readers?

Mr J.T., email

Indeed it does. Why see your money earning less than inflation when it can effectively earn more by reducing your debt exposure. The First Active produce is ideal for someone in your position, until something more competitive comes along on the savings front.

Please send your queries to Dominic Coyle, Q&A, The Irish Times, D'Olier Street, Dublin 2 or e-mail to dcoyle@irish-times.ie. This column is a reader service and is not intended to replace professional advice. Due to the volume of mail, there may be a delay in answering queries. All suitable queries will be answered through the columns of the newspaper. No personal correspondence will be entered into.