 |
United Kingdom
Computershare Services (United Kingdom)
Computershare Services PLC in the United Kingdom has had another
strong year. The main focus has been the migration of companies to
the SCRIP system in an effort to consolidate our technology needs and
business efficiencies. Our entire UK business, comprising over 800
companies and in excess of 15 million shareholders has now been
migrated to the Computershare SCRIP system in a project completed
shortly after the year end. |
|
|
The SCRIP system in the UK is being supported and developed by locally
recruited Computershare Limited staff with assistance from a Melbourne
team led by Penny Maclagan. The same team also assisted the newly formed
South African subsidiary with its entry to the Computershare group.
We are already seeing benefits in being the UK division of a global group and
were delighted last summer to start the financial year by working with Computershare Registry Services (Australia) in handling the demutualisation
of AMP. This involved the issue of shares to around two million shareholders
in a number of countries. The administration for UK and Irish scheme
aspects, involving around 170,000 shareholders, was managed locally by
Computershare Services. The success of this particular project clearly
demonstrates the value of being a truly global registrar and this was
reaffirmed by our subsequent success in winning UK and Irish business
supporting a large demutualisation of a Canadian Company. We expect this
market to grow in the future.
Computershare Services’ corporate action team was appointed to manage 88 projects over the past year including:
|
- Gus / Argos Take-over valued at £1867 million
- TU / Energy Group Take-over valued at £4460 million
- Thomson Travel Group share shops creating a register of over 500,000 shareholders
- Thames Water Buy back and Redemptions
- Enron / Wessex Water Take-over valued at £1360 million
- Scottish Hydro / Southern Electric Merger to form Scottish and Southern Energy
- Halifax / Birmingham Midshires Building Society involving distributions to 900,000 shareholders. This was a landmark event as it was the first take-over handled in the UK where the whole process was completed using scanning technology.
|
In March we also signed a contract with Abbey National, which manages its share register of two million shareholders in
house, to undertake any corporate actions work it may require in the future.
Our specialist products teams, split across both locations, deliver a range of services to our clients including employee
‘save as you earn’ share option schemes and profit sharing schemes. Another product that has been delivered courtesy
of Computershare’s new technology system, COSMOS, allows client companies to investigate the beneficial owners of
nominee holdings in their stock. Previously known as ‘212’, after the section of the UK Companies Act that gives
companies the right to investigate beneficial holders, it has been renamed and relaunched as ‘Computershare Analytics’.
Other new products offered by Computershare Services include Webinfo, which gives shareholders access to information
about their shareholdings over the World Wide Web, ShareInfo, which gives them the same access using a touch tone
phone and Local On-line Links (LOLA), linking a PC in the client’s office directly into their company’s share register.
Another major achievement for Computershare Services was gaining IMRO accreditation at the beginning of the year. This
enables us to provide investment related products to our clients’ shareholders, such as share dealing services, dividend
reinvestment plans and a company nominee service, in our own right under the UK’s Financial Services Act.
The Computershare Services training team has identified 24 roles that fall within IMRO’s training and competency
regulations and has established a monitoring system and development plan to ensure the business continues to meet
IMRO’s requirements.
Changes initiated in the UK business highlighted a need to upgrade our Bristol premises and to rationalise the three sites
we occupied in the city. Earlier in the year we moved our corporate actions staff from Consort House to the Pavilions to
join colleagues already working there managing the Halifax register. Shortly after the year end we were able to acquire
the entire complex at the Pavilions and by the end of 1999 we will exit Caxton House where most of the processing is
currently undertaken and all our Bristol staff will be in one building.
Two priorities of the last year included training staff on the SCRIP system and developing a more suitable reward system.
These initiatives, coupled with the introduction of a cultural change program, are geared towards improving conditions
for staff and enhancing the quality of their performance.
Overall it has been a year of consolidation in three key areas of the business: systems, premises and personnel.
Computershare Services now has the stable environment necessary for expansion and we are confident that we can offer
clients, both existing and new, an ever more efficient and cost effective service as we move forward over the coming years.
www.computershare.com
|
|
|
