Best & easiest way to sell shares?

[truangel]

My girlfriend has bought some shares in the company she used to work for as part of a share saving plan.

She now wants to try and find out how much they are currently worth and how much she could potentially get by selling them.

Also if she does decide to sell now, the easiest way of doing this. Thanks.

[BigMac]

1. Check the terms of the share-save scheme - there may be a minimum period of membership required before shares are allocated; in some schemes, employees save cash and receive the right to buy shares at the end of a qualifying period at a predetermined price (the exercise price). The theory is that the share price will have risen significantly above the exercise price allowing the employee to buy, say �100 worth of shares for only, say, �25. There are other types of sharesave scheme.

2. Assuming she has the shares, the simplest way of working out how much they are worth is to multiply the number of shares she holds by the current bid-price. Most newspapers will print the mid-price (which is higher than the bid-price) of at least the top 100 shares (the FTSE 100) each day; if the company concerned is smaller than this, then it may be listed in only one or two of the broadsheet papers (it's unlikely to be in the red-tops). The other obvious place to find the current price is the London Stock Exchange. If you enter the company's name in the Price Search box and follow through, you will get the bid-price and the offer-price; the bid-price is what you will receive if you sell your shares, the offer price is what you would have to pay to buy them.

3. The easiest way to sell them will be through the company itself or its scheme adminstrator - there will probably be a preferential dealing rate for members but, as you say she used to work there it may no longer apply. If she has a physical share certificate, some high-street banks may be able to sell them for her... for a price. And, of course, you could look for a broker in the Yellow Pages or at yell.co.uk.

I hope this helps.