Once upon a time, long long ago ...

The story of a nephew tracking down shares 50 years later

Lawrence Kunene discovered that his elderly aunt, who used to work at National Fund Investments in the late 1960s, had acquired 100 ordinary shares from the company.

His aunt had held onto the shares all these years, so he did some research on the company's history in an effort to find out what she might be able to do with them.

Finding that NFI was subsequently bought and sold, the picture became blurry and Kunene wrote to us for help.

Andre Visser, general manager: issuer services at the JSE, said companies listed on the stock exchange have an obligation to keep investors informed about any developments that will affect the price of shares - including liquidation, a takeover by another company, acquisitions and disposals.

These obligations only apply while the company remains listed, however.

There are also obligations on the shareholder to keep track of any developments in companies whose shares they own.

The company will let shareholders know what is going on through SENS announcements, circulars and financial reports.

Visser said: "Shareholders must ensure that they stay abreast of significant developments, as well as ensuring that the company is informed when there is a change in their contact details and address, so that they can be notified when there are shareholder entitlements or changes."

He said shareholders who had lost track of shares could contact the JSE if the company was once listed there.

"We will be able to provide whatever information is available, including the details of the liquidator, last-known transfer secretary and any other contact details. Shareholders can then contact these parties to ascertain the status of the company and shares. The JSE's ability to assist is much greater if the company is still listed."

There is no firm rule as to how much time can pass before a discovery like this can be dealt with successfully, but Visser said the Prescription Act or the company's articles of association would apply. As a rule of thumb, the period of prescription for general debt is normally three years.

Visser did some digging on Kunene's behalf, and found that NFI changed its name to SAGIT in November 1972 - the first of many significant changes. SAGIT shareholders were offered 55 Picardi Beleggings (Picbel) shares for every 100 SAGIT shares held on November 14 1975. SAGIT also made an offer of preference shares, which were redeemed on May 30 1980.

An offer was then made by Power Technologies (Powertech) to Picbel shareholders - through a scheme of arrangement - on the basis of 200 Powertech shares for every 100 SAGIT shares, or 700c a share held on January 15 1993. This was the date on which Picbel was delisted.

On June 26 2002, Powertech had a capital reduction of 100c a share and a scheme of arrangement where shareholders got 400c a share. It then delisted.

According to Visser, the transfer secretaries at the time were Computershare Investor Services.

According to Computershare, such queries are quite common, and there is no typical time period that will define whether a query would be successful.

In this case, Computershare advised Kunene to send, by registered post, the original shareholder certificate; a certified copy of his aunt's ID; and written instructions to search for any outstanding payments, to Compushare Limited at PO Box 62053, Marshalltown, 2107.

After seven to 10 working days, Kunene could call Computershare with his track and trace postage number, to see whether his aunt was entitled to any payment for the old shares.