Bain’s £530m offer may stack up for the board but the mutual’s 1.2m policyholders get the final say
The long and confusing tussle over the sale of LV=, the mutual known as Liverpool Victoria in its less funky days, is proving a wonderful advertisement for the clinical manner in which the stock market goes about buying and selling companies.
In the stock market arena, you get a clean punch-up, overseen by the Takeover Panel as referee, and run to a strict timetable. Financial claims must be verified, relevant facts must be disclosed to shareholders and bidders and targets are expected to explain themselves promptly.
