New Statesman Scotland
As the weeks go by, the arguments for the votes of the members of Standard Life get more confusing. It is good to have the anomaly of such a huge financial corporation masquerading as a "club" and saving itself the expense and hassle of shareholders. It sounds cosy and agreeable. But it is of doubtful sense.
Standard Life insists that, if it demutualises, its members will get far more modest sums than its opponents claim. Pretty well every city authority has favoured the alternative status as yet another plc. If mutuality was such an asset, the mutuals would be advancing rather than evaporating. Ladbrokes is offering odds of 8-11 on a vote for demutualisation, and evens on the board winning. It seems quite likely that Standard Life's huge expenditure on propaganda may save it by a whisker this time, but that Fred Woollard and his dissidents will win a second vote in 2001.
Proshare, the outfit that tries to entice everyone into the share-ownership game, is starting a mission to wean Scots off their traditional reserve about shares. Outside the professional classes - which in Scotland are predominantly Labour - very few people hold shares. Even fewer trade shares on a regular basis.
Proshare is going to challenge this complacency by setting up "investment clubs" in every pub. The law allows societies of no more than 25 people to save no more than £100 a month each. Footling sums, but it avoids any catastrophes. If the amounts were larger, some city slickers might try to trick the naive.
Scottish pubs tend to be at their most empty on Mondays and Tuesdays. A corner of every bar hosting a dozen or so punters buying ICI or BP or Marks & Spencer shares should translate into several pints and no doubt a few meals sold, too.
Proshare reports that its investment clubs are highly successful. Once the mystery and the alien jargon have been decoded, members soon graduate to creating their own portfolios. As Proshare argues, "it is as much a matter of fun. The profit is almost coincidental to the camaraderie."
Perhaps Scottish & Newcastle Brewers will convert the Scots to capitalism more convincingly than the Tory party has ever done. Are S&N shares themselves worth watching?
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