Nominet Investments Loose £2,000,000 Off Their Value!!!

[sneezycheese]

Hi all,

While sitting in the hotel lounge the night before this months PAB meeting Gordon Dick (with G&T in hand and looking quite drunk to me) came over a sat with us and began telling us about Nominets investments. Basically what was said is that in the last year they've lost around £2,000,000 off their value, but it's nothing to worry about as it's not real money and it's only a paper loss!

Now am I missing something here or is this just bonkers? :???:

Regards,

Sneezy.

 

[bb99]

I sincerely hope that this is not true! In the last set of accounts Nominet's investments stood at £11.4m. If they have since lost £2m, this equates to around 17.5%.

The accounts say that "Surplus funds remain under management for long-term
growth over short-term income, with an emphasis on low risk
investments in preference to cash deposits."

A £2m loss doesn't seem very "low risk" to me

As I say though, I sincerely hope that this is not true. Perhaps someone in the know could confirm or deny it?

 

[retired_member26]

Why not just reduce two-year registrations to GBP4. If you have 1000s of names it really starts to hurt renewing. One more thing to mummynet Please for the sake of God, do not send me A-grade high quality paper invoices or anything etc. Better do not send me anything via mail at all.

 

[GreyWing]

That's one thing that is starting to pee me off with Nominet now. My view of the board is that because they are all but guaranteed a surplus at the end of the year, then financial competance is not scrutinised like it would be in regular company.

Look at the crazy campaign to get people to renew their domain names, total waste of money, ill thought out and indicative of what is going on.

Money at Nominet seems to have lost it's link to reality, £2m here £4m there.

 

[rob]

Why not just reduce two-year registrations to GBP4. If you have 1000s of names it really starts to hurt renewing. One more thing to mummynet Please for the sake of God, do not send me A-grade high quality paper invoices or anything etc. Better do not send me anything via mail at all.

Thing is a grand or two wont hurt a domainer spread over two years, however for registrars with hundreds of thousands (or millions!) of names on the book such a price saving would be instant £xxx,xxx in the pocket right away.

My viewpoint is one that would be happy with prices being increased, however that would be at odds with 'not for profit' aim and does have other downsides - swings & roundabouts

Back to the OP / bb99 - is there a definition of 'low risk investments' ? I have just read someone on Nom-steer describe the loss as 'bloody wonderful' compared to the rest of the market but that was based on £30mil down by £2mil not the £11.4mil BB99 quoted.

Can anyone explain further?

 

[bb99]

Can anyone explain further?

I think it's all hot air until there is official confirmation from Nominet as to whether this is true.

BUT:

Having pondered this since I made my post above, I'm absolutely outraged - assuming it's true that is!

Nominet's Directors have a fiduciary duty to safeguard the assets of the company (in this case its cash/surplus). Furthermore, the Audit Committee of Nominet have oversight on the executive directors on this matter.

It could be suggested that investing Nominet's cash in anything whereby there is a risk of losing one's money is a direct breach of that duty*. And, in my mind, if there were such a risk it would not be a "low risk" investment.

In UK law, the liability for a breach of fiduciary duty is personal on the part of the directors :shock: Now there's a sobering thought.

If this is true, it's an absolute disgrace. Set amongst the backdrop of allegations of poor corporate governance, possible malpractice, potential government intervention and a possible vote of no confidence in the board, it's absolute bloody dynamite!

Does anyone at all on here know what we can do to get the facts on this from Nominet ASAP?


* I'm not saying that is the case, I'm only saying that it could be suggested as being so. I'm not a lawyer and so I'm not familiar with the law in detail or any case law.

 

[ELIFE-MZ]

One more thing to mummynet Please for the sake of God, do not send me A-grade high quality paper invoices or anything etc. Better do not send me anything via mail at all.

Renewals changes


This should reduce the reminders/invoices.

 

[bb99]

Oh come on, Nominet's directors *may* have presided over the jizzing away of £2m by virtue of a careless investment and you're waffling on about renewals??? Wake up and smell the coffee

 

[Jeewhizz]

Does anyone at all on here know what we can do to get the facts on this from Nominet ASAP?

I am not a lawyer, nor exceptionally experienced. However, my understanding is that an audit could be requested by a 10% shareholder. As Nom doesn't have any share capital, I'm not sure how this works in this case... I assume it would be listed in the Articles or Memorandums (who's got a copy?)

 

[retired_member11]

Is it fair comment to say that a good reason to appoint someone to run a not-for-profit organisation would be previous experience of and success in running... a not-for-profit organisation?

PLCs are quite different from NFPs.

Is Nominet a good fit for the present incumbent?