§ Mr. Foulkesasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table for each former public corporation or publicly owned company in which shares were sold in the financial years 1979–80 to 1982–83 showing (a) proportion of shares sold, (b) number of shares sold, (c) proportion of shares reserved for employees, (d) number of shares applied for by employees, (e) number of shares bought by employees, (f) proportion of work force becoming shareholders, (g) proportion of share capital initially held by employees, and (h) proportion of share capital now held by employees.
§ Mr. Lawson[pursuant to his reply, 27 July 1983, c. 453]: The following table gives the information 727W requested. The proportion of share capital now held by employees is a matter for the company concerned and is
British Aerospace Cable and Wireless Amersham International Britoil Associated British Ports (a)Proportion of shares sold (per cent.)† 51.6 *49.36 100 51 51.5 (b)Number of shares sold† 100,000,000 133,285,000 50,000,000 255,410,510 20,600,000 (c)Proportion of total issued share capital initially reserved for employees (per cent.) 5.8 5 5 6 5.6 (d)Number of shares applied for by employees 10,612,008 3,785,833 2,014,140 580,610 1,856,875 (e)Number of shares allocated to employees 7,072,300 3,785,833 1,828,290 580,610 1,736,965 (f)Proportion of total work force becoming shareholders (per cent.) 74 99 ‡99 72 91 (g)Proportion of total issued share capital initially held by employees (per cent.) 3.6 1.4 3.7 0.1 4.3 * A subsequent rights issue (March 1983) not taken up by Government, increased the proportion of Cable and Wireless shares held in the private sector to 55 per cent. † These figures include shares allocated free to employees. ‡ Excludes overseas employees.