Data services

Tender description

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) currently carries out a survey of share ownership every 2 years. The survey identifies, on a particular date, the value of ordinary shares in United Kingdom (UK) quoted companies by sector of beneficial owner. Beneficial owner is the true underlying owner of the share who receives the benefits of holding the share, for example income through dividends. The main purpose of the survey is to attribute UK listed shares to the sector of the economy that owns the assets, to compile sector balance sheets in the UK National Accounts. The information also allows ONS to make accurate estimates of dividend income received by these sectors. However, the results of the share ownership survey are of wider interest and so ONS publishes the results in a statistical bulletin. The most recent of these was Ownership of UK Quoted Shares 2014, published in September 2015. For each share ownership survey, a sample of companies (200 in 2014) is drawn from publically available information held on the London Stock Exchange. For these sampled companies, the breakdown of types of beneficial owner is obtained. Since 1998, data have been acquired from Euroclear (CREST), the electronic settlement system for equity share trading, to estimate distribution of the value of UK quoted shares across sectors of beneficial owner on a particular date (31 December). 1 of the ownership categories CREST identifies is multiple ownership pooled nominee accounts, meaning ownership where the beneficial owners fall into more than 1 of the categories highlighted in Annex A. By definition this means it is more difficult to identify the beneficial owners. The most recent statistical bulletin also provides information as to the methodology used to compile the 2014 estimates. Prior to the publication of the 2012 results, a more detailed methodological note, Share Ownership — Share Register Survey Report, Share Ownership 2012 — Methodology was published. These 2 publications contain details of the methodology used within the last three statistical bulletins. The estimates of share ownership are compiled from three building blocks: Single ownership Multiple ownership pooled nominee Those accounts excluded from CREST such as those in paper form: The Authority invites bids to carry out an analysis of share ownership by beneficial owner, as close to 31.12.2016 as is possible. The objective is to determine, as accurately as possible, which sectors are the beneficial owners of companies incorporated in the UK and listed on the London Stock Exchange. The Authority will draw a sample of approximately 200 UK companies from CREST, the central electronic share register, in November 2016. The Authority will obtain account details for each of the sampled companies, including the account ID, participant ID, the type of beneficial owner and the number of shares held in the account. This information will be made available to the successful bidder by January 2017. The sample the Authority will be drawing will be structured as follows: Approximately the top 80-90 companies by market capitalisation. The remaining 110-120 companies selected with probability proportional to size (PPS). This portion of the sample may be broken down into 2 or more subsections. The successful bidder's analysis will, at a minimum, cover companies worth at least 50 % of the total market capitalisation in each section and sub-section of the sample. For each company, the beneficial owner of at least 90 % of shares will be determined. Exceeding this level of coverage and setting out plans to minimise sample bias are 2 ways in which the ‘quality’ score of bids will be determined. Historically, just over half of the total value of shares in these accounts has been held in ‘pooled nominee’ accounts, where there is more than 1 type of beneficial owner. The analysis provided by the successful bidder will report on the beneficial owners of pooled nominee accounts, with the same minimum coverage as specified above. ONS will use these results to produce statistics on a comparable basis to the 2014 and previous share ownership surveys. The coverage of shares to be included must follow the definition of listed shares (AF.511) in the European System of Accounting 2010 (ESA 2010). In particular, it does not include preference shares which are regarded as long-term debt securities, rather than equity. The successful bidder will carry out their own analysis of the beneficial ownership of UK-listed shares by value. They may make use of the CREST data purchased by ONS for this purpose. Alternatively, they may rely entirely on their own data collection. The CREST data will be available to the successful bidder by January 2017. The Authority shall have the right to publish analytical outputs based on the work of the Bidder. In addition to its analysis, the Bidder will supply company level data on ownership by beneficial owner. The Authority will support the bidder in allaying any concerns respondents may have about the confidentiality and use of data passed to the Authority. Where possible, the Authority is particularly interested in receiving applications from organisations working on a collaborative basis with other organisations to ensure maximum coverage and ease of access to information required for the analysis.