Shop around when selling your shares

As shareholders in Telecom Eireann start to receive their share certificates or nominee account statements through the letterbox, some will be considering how to sell their shares.

Nominee shareholders can use any of the major stockbrokers or bank branches to sell, although the deal will be executed through Goodbody Stockbrokers. As part of the terms and conditions of this service, nominee shareholders will not be able to set a minimum sale price for their shares.

AIB is offering a dealing service on nominee account shares, charging £6.50 (€8.25) for amounts up to £4,000 and 0.5 per cent on any balance above this and Goodbody Stockbrokers, its subsidiary, charges a similar amount. Clients should note that this is for the basic nominee account postal sales service and that, for example, if they require advice and other services the charge will be higher.

Those wishing to switch from nominee accounts to share certificates - to be able to set a minimum price to sell or deal through a broker not participating in the nominee account scheme - can do so for an administrative charge of £3. The mini-prospectus had stated that a £10 stamp duty would also apply, but the Office of the Revenue Commissioners has just ruled that this is not the case.

Those with share certificates or nominee statements who wish to shop around will find that brokers' fees vary, but so do the services they offer, with some accepting instructions not to sell the shares below a certain price and some charging extra for additional investment advice.

For share certificates Goodbody Stockbrokers and AIB charge £7.50 on amounts up to £4,000 and 0.5 per cent on any excess balance.

On deals up to £4,000 NCB Stockbrokers is charging a commission of £12.50 with commission on anything over charged at 0.75 per cent.

Davy Stockbrokers is charging £12.50 on amounts up to £4,015 and 0.825 per cent on sales above this level. ABN-Amro will charge the customer £17.50 on amounts up to £4,000 or 0.825 per cent on amounts above the limit.

NCB Stockbrokers offers transactions up to £4,000 for £12.50 while charging 0.75 per cent on anything over that.

Bloxham Stockbrokers is charging a commission of £13.50 on deals up to £5,000 with a charge of 0.5 per cent for anything over that.

After October 15th, the institutions involved will be able to change their charges for share dealing and so shareholders should check the charges before they place orders after that date.

A spokesman for BCP Stockbrokers advised against setting unrealistically high thresholds for the sale of their shares.

ABN-Amro is only allowing its existing clients to set minimum limits, Goodbody Stockbrokers is not allowing any sellers to set a limit. Bloxham will allow people with share certificates and existing clients to set a lower limit.

As a general rule NCB is encouraging people not to set a minimum sale price for their shares as it says it can often work to the disadvantage of the customer, especially since the shares at the moment are trading in a very narrow price range.

It will, however, allow people to set limits if they insist on doing so.