Society urged to defer merger vote
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Your support makes all the difference.SCOTTISH Equitable, the life assurance society, is coming under pressure to postpone its plan to be taken over by Aegon, the Dutch insurer.
Colin Fisher, a policy-holder, has asked management to put a motion before policy- holders at Wednesday's special general meeting that would postpone the vote for three months. Mr Fisher believes the society's 600,000 policy-holders have not had enough time to consider the Aegon deal, under which the Dutch group would inject pounds 240m to create a new company and Scottish Equitable lose its mutual status.
Bill Stewart, marketing director of Scottish Equitable, said Charles Sleigh, the chairman, would have to decide whether the motion was valid. 'If it is technically correct, I am sure the chairman will allow it to be debated. We would not try to gag Mr Fisher.'
The merger plan was announced in April and the formal merger document was sent out at the end of May. 'We believe adequate time has been given,' said Mr Stewart. 'I'm not sure what Mr Fisher thinks another three months would achieve.'
He added that Scottish Equitable had only received about a dozen letters of complaint from members.
The society says it wants to join up with Aegon because it needs capital to develop its business. As a mutual, its scope for raising fresh funds is strictly limited.
Mr Fisher said he wondered whether this solution was the best one available. Policy-holders who had contacted him had raised similar questions.
'People who have waded through the merger document feel there are other strategies that could have been pursued. They have raised questions about a number of options, ranging from the possibility of joint ventures to whether the company needs to keep growing at all.'
Mr Fisher said he had gathered proxy votes from other policyholders and would use them as he sees fit, depending on the management's response to his questions.
The deadline for postal votes is tomorrow at 11am and the special general meeting will be held on Wednesday at 11am in the Church of Scotland Assembly Hall, Mound Place, Edinburgh.
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