I wrote:When an open offer is as popular as this one appears to have been, that both makes the number of shares not taken up under basic entitlements relatively small and the number applied for under the excess application facility relatively large - and so the proportion of excess applications that are satisfied can be pretty small. On this occasion, it was about 3.8% of them, and 3.8% of the 76 shares you applied for comes to just less than 3 shares, so rounds down to 2 shares.
So the outcome of you having received back 2 shares and the application price of the other 74 shares that you applied for and were not allocated is exactly what I would have expected. And Charles Stanley really do have to have removed £228 from your account and later refunded you £222, because the company will have insisted on those payments.
I should add that that's precisely what I'd expect of a separately-registered shareholding - i.e. one held as a certificate, in a CREST account, or in an individually-designated nominee account (the last is very rare, but I have once had such an account).
The usual form of shareholding in a 'pooled' nominee account is more complex if some of the broker's clients don't use their basic entitlements, because the registered shareholding is the combined holding of all the broker's clients, and has to use all of its basic entitlement before it can make an excess application. This can lead to clients getting considerably higher proportions of what they regard as their excess applications.
As an over-simplified example to illustrate what sort of thing can happen, suppose such a broker had just three clients who owned Chesnara shares, and each owned 10000 shares and so had a basic entitlement of 369 shares. Client A didn't want to buy any more shares, client B wanted to take up his basic entitlement but nothing more, client C wanted to take up her basic entitlement and make an excess application for another 500 shares. So the broker gets basic-entitlement applications for 738 shares and excess applications for 500 shares from their clients, totalling 1238 shares wanted.
But the registered shareholding is of 30000 shares and has a basic entitlement of 1107 shares. So the broker can apply for 1238 shares, but must do it as a basic-entitlement application for 1107 shares and an excess application for 131 shares - and in due course they get 1107 + 3.8% * 131 shares, rounded down = 1111 shares to distribute among their clients. All three clients get the numbers they applied for under their basic entitlements, i.e. 0, 369 and 369 respectively, which leaves 373 shares to go to client C. So rather than getting 3.8% of her excess application, client C gets 74.6% of it!
Gengulphus