§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has voted his shares either directly or by proxy in recent shareholder votes in Northern Electric; whether he supported the call for an emergency annual meeting; and what public statement he has made on whether Northern Electric is to accept the offer of Trafalgar House plc. [29774]
§ Sir George YoungAt no shareholder meeting have Treasury shares been voted. The Treasury was prepared to vote its shares in March in favour of the full cash alternative in reference to a combination of cash and Trafalgar House shares. Not to have so voted our shares would have meant acceptance by default of the latter option and would have involved, unacceptably, the Treasury taking a new stake in a private sector company. In the event, the Trafalgar House bid was withdrawn. The Government's usual policy is not to vote our shareholdings to intervene in the commercial activities of a privatised company but, in the circumstances of last March, we took account of the fact that Northern Electric had recommended acceptance of the Trafalgar House bid. Treasury Ministers have made no public statements on this matter.