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Q:
I am looking for information regarding the share price history of a number of banks and former building societies that have merged or amalgamated, for example Halifax and Bank of Scotland, Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest, Midland Bank and Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank.
Where can I find the historical share prices before and after the amalgamation, as well as the dates of their takeovers and mergers? Was there a pattern in the movement of the value of their shares before and after these events? Did those that merged give free shares to account holders and did those that bought out or took over other banks buy all the shares in issue, including those held by private investors?
Robert Scott, via email
A:
Angus Rigby replies:
There is no central place to find all this information, but I can suggest a number
of websites that you might find useful.
The Building Society Association website provides some useful information on
the takeovers and flotations of building societies, along with a ‘Where is my building society now?’ search facility. Visit the website www.bsa.org.uk/consumer/factsheets/.
Information on the history of banks, including takeovers and mergers, can usually be found on their individual websites. Some charting packages, such as those provided by Digital Look, can be used to gauge the impact of a takeover or merger on a company’s share price, by allowing you to display the timing of significant events on a historic share price graph.
Finally, your broker, or the London Stock Exchange, should be able to provide historic prices and a news archive of UK-listed companies.
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Disappearing trust
15 August 2008 [0 comments]Q:
I wish to draw your attention to the ‘Resources Investment Trust’, which is listed in What Investment in the sector entitled ‘Specialist: Liquidity’. In fact, this trust should be in the sector entitled ‘Specialist: Commodities & Natural Resources.
The trust was correctly listed in ‘Specialist: Commodities & Natural Resources’ up to and including August 2007, issue 293, but in the next issue, September 2007, it had been moved to ‘Specialist: Liquidity’.
Also, the performance figures in issue 302 of What Investment, May 2008, for the Resources Investment Trust appear to be somewhat excessive – far outperforming the Merrill Lynch World Mining Trust. Are you certain that these figures are accurate? The reason I query the figures is because I have seen performance figures for these trusts in
other publications where the Resources Investment Trust mostly underperforms the
Merrill Lynch World Mining Trust.
Derek Crawford
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