demutualize

SPP Liv is a Swedish demutualised life insurance firm offering various forms of pension solutions.

KARACHI -- The demutualisation committee of the stock exchanges has asked the financial advisor (FA) to the `corporatisation, demutualisation and integration` of the bourses The Deutsche Bank, to find the `strategic buyer` of 40 per cent shares in the demutualised stock exchanges by the end of September.

The SECP while approving the plans for segregation of commercial and regulatory functions of the exchanges has ensured that the demutualised entities exhibit enhanced governance and transparency and greater balance between interests of various stakeholders while supporting independent management.

The company began life as a mutual in Edinburgh in 1815, but demutualised and became part of the Lloyds group in 2000.

But your correspondent Kenneth Hughes appears to forget that the Tories, who demutualised the Trustee Savings Bank, building societies like Northern Rock and insurance companies, were calling for less regulation, not more.

The proposals include allowing small investors to file their capital gains tax statements on annual basis rather than quarterly basis and restoration of exemption of income tax on transfer of capital assets of demutualised stock exchanges.

Norwich Union demutualised and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1997, turning it into a FTSE 100 Index company.

Rahmani took charge when the exchange demutualised in 2006.

The "free" pounds 4.50 shares they got when Halifax demutualised 13 years ago are now worth a mere 86p.

Nonetheless, the subsequent history of demutualised organisations like Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley and HBOS must surely suggest that demutualisation and its so very deleterious financial and social consequences was a grave mistake.

HBOS shareholders are being offered 232p a share, which is half the price when Halifax demutualised in 1997.