MSE News: Yorkshire and Norwich & Peterborough building societies to merge

Dr_Cuckoo3

Virgin Money were interested in acquiring a building society and paying a windfall to members (Paragraph 14 )

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/may/26/jayne-anne-gadhia-virgin-money-interview

"We've looked at acquiring a mutual that was subsequently acquired by a mutual. They [the members] would have had a capital payment [from us]. They never knew. I'm not sure how that's in the best interests of members," she said.



contrast with ;

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/saving/article-2013006/Big-trouble-ahead-merger-vote-lost-warns-N-P-chief.html


"The boss of Norwich & Peterborough has warned that ‘things will not be pretty’ if the building society’s members vote against its takeover by bigger mutual Yorkshire."

Mids_Costcutter

I voted against the takeover as well: N&P should sort out their own problems. Also hoping (perhaps naively) that in the long run keeping some variety and competition in the financial services market will be a good thing against the tide of consolidation.

premierfella

I normally vote against these proposals, but am on the fence on this one.

On the one hand, the tie up makes sense as there is very little overlap and N&Ps financial position has been weakened by the provisions for Keydata. If the no's win and the N&P board decide to remain standalone, their claims that they would have to cut levels of service and products do seem to be valid. My dealings with Yorkshire BS over the years have also been almost universally positive.

On the other hand, N&P (even with the Keydata burden) would clearly be of significant value to a number of non-mutual financial institutions. This suggests to me that the Board's position may have been to rule out at an early stage in their review any non-mutual solution to the issues they themselves admit the business is facing. I'm not convinced that doing that (if that is what they have done) is really acting in the best interests of the Society's members.

As per all these votes though, I'm sure my vote will be immaterial anyway.

Mids_Costcutter

premierfella wrote: »

As per all these votes though, I'm sure my vote will be immaterial anyway.

Why? Doesn't every vote count equally?

Milarky

Mids_Costcutter wrote: »

Why? Doesn't every vote count equally?

OK. Every vote is equal. Do I need to add anything? (Oh, something about relatively few people will vote anyway. Of those that do more people tend to vote how the board advises them and - rarely - people nominate the chairman as proxy but 'don't vote' themselves - clearly the chairman will cast your ballot for the proposition in that case) Tricky thing, this 'democracy'!

cing0

Is it possible a member could please scan, OCR and post on the web the merger documents so others can give a qualified opinion ?