Dominic Coyle answers your financial questions

Failing to meet Jurys deadline

I saw an advertisement in a newspaper last week advising that all acceptances for the Jurys Doyle mandatory cash offer had to be in by 3pm last Wednesday. I (and others who I know) have received no documentation with regard to this offer.

I rang the number given for JDH Acquisitions and was advised that all documentation had been sent by post but was delayed by a "postal strike that you have had" (the number appears to have been answered somewhere in Britain). I am unaware of the half day postal dispute having occasioned disruption to deliveries of post.

JDH did e-mail me the required form but had no suggestion as to how one was meant to get the forms and share certificates in before the Wednesday deadline.

A friend who lives outside Dublin had requested the forms by e-mail last Friday. Neither of us has been impressed by JDH, who showed absolutely no concern about the matter.

Do you know whether Jurys Doyle (or JDH, or whoever is responsible) can insist on a deadline when they accept that the documentation has not made it to the shareholders? Indeed, if it is a mandatory cash offer, what are the consequences if one didn't get it in by Wednesday?

Ms G.O'B, Dublin

The fact that the Jurys Doyle share register still features a number of small retail shareholders like yourself is probably as surprising as anything else. It doesn't get around the fact that the situation you found yourself in was clearly unsatisfactory but the decision by JDH Acquisitions to extend by a week the deadline for acceptance of its offer will probably make the travails to date academic.

JDH, the consortium led by the Doyle family and including other long-term Jurys shareholders, says that it was not informed at the time details of the offer were posted out that there were significant delays in the postal system. This was in advance of the very short-lived strike action last week that had no impact on deliveries.

Having said that, the decision of the JDH helpline to blame all problems on the strike was disingenuous and shows the difficulties that can arise when customer service slips down the priority list. The good news is that a spokesman for the consortium assures me that the settlement date for all shareholders will be the same regardless of whether they make the deadline or not.

JDH has, not surprisingly, already received acceptances for more than 80 per cent of the stock of Jurys Doyle and has indicated it will compulsorily acquire the balance at the offer price of €18.90 a share.

There does not appear to be any impediment to a group like JDH setting a deadline that is then disrupted in this fashion. Although that fact that JDH extended the offer period despite having 80 per cent acceptances probably indicates their tacit acceptance that some people were disadvantaged.

It is academic in this case as JDH has indicated a common settlement date but technically failure to get your acceptances in by the deadline would mean you could face a lengthy delay in receiving your cash as you would go to the back of the queue and be dealt with only when all acceptances have been processed and paid.

In the event, I would still make a point of getting your acceptances back to Computershare by next Wednesday.

Missing stocks

I bought shares in Starbase Corporation in California in 2000. They took a dive in 2002 but I didn't sell and ignored them. I recently tried to check their value and couldn't find any trace of them on Nasdaq. I eventually found that the company was "merged out" but don't know when this happened. My question is, are my shares now worthless?

Ms M.G., Cork

You should have kept an eye on that stock in 2002. The software group was approached by rival Borland and, in October that year, the two boards agreed a merger that valued Starbase at $24 million (€20.4 million).

The acquisition was completed in January 2003. However, your shares are not worthless now, although they are clearly not tradeable. Anyone who failed to avail of the cash offer by that point was still able to pick up their $2.75 a share by surrendering their stock. The issue of stocks that disappear off investors' radars is becoming a recurring theme. While there is certainly merit in the idea of investing in equities with longer term goals than the pursuit of a quick buck, it still behoves individual investors to keep an eye on companies in which they have invested.

This is particularly true in the case of companies in young sectors such as technology and smallish foreign companies, such as Starbase, that would not generally be covered by the Irish media or analysts.

In this case, you have had $2.75 per share sitting in a US account just waiting for you to claim it since January 2003. Naturally, it is not inflation proofed and you may even find yourself facing account management charges.

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. No personal correspondence will be entered into.