The battle to demutualise Standard Life continues, with rebel member Mr Gordon Hart working to line up a fresh bid to force a change at the company.
Standard Life held what it described as a "cordial and constructive" meeting with Mr Hart last week. The inconclusive outcome of the meeting does not rule out a later bid by the Scottish businessman.
After the meeting, Standard Life said: "Given that our policyholders had shown such strong support in favour of the company remaining as a mutual only six weeks ago, we were keen to hear the views of Mr Hart's Members' Action Group at first hand."
He added that Standard Life had listened fully to Mr Hart's queries. "I am sure both parties will now wish to reflect on the points discussed today," he said.
Mr Hart, who spearheaded campaigns to demutualise Scottish Provident and Friends Provident, has been running an Internet-based campaign, which wants to force Standard Life to give members an independently audited assessment of how much money they would receive in windfall payments.
He then wants members to hold another referendum on mutuality.
On June 27th, Standard Life defeated a group of rebel policyholders, led by Monaco-based businessman Mr Fred Woollard, when a majority of 54.3 per cent of policyholders voted to maintain the company's mutual status.
Mr Woollard, who is estimated to have stood to gain £150,000 sterling from a demutualisation, had urged members to vote for his proposal, saying policyholders could receive windfalls of about £6,000 sterling.
Standard Life said the pay-outs would be much lower on average and warned that future policyholders would see lower returns as profits would have to be shared with shareholders.
Many observers now believe the issue will be refought over the next couple of years.
Only a shade over half of eligible policyholders voted against conversion to a publicly-listed company, despite a forceful campaign by the life assurer's management. Mind you, the threshold for change, at 70 per cent, is daunting for any group.
