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.
At LV=, by contrast, the unsatisfactory saga has been running for a year and the proposed £530m sale to Bain Capital has exploded into life a fortnight ahead of the vote by policyholders for several good reasons.
First, and most
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