Bristol and West votes on B of I takeover deal

MEMBERS of the Bristol and West Building Society will vote today on the £600 million takeover of the society by the Bank of Ireland.

Members will get an average payment of £1,100 each if the largest ever acquisition by the Bank of Ireland goes ahead.

Savers and mortgage holders are meeting this morning to decide the future of their mutual society and are expected to approve the Bank of Ireland acquisition.

Bristol and West is Britain's ninth largest building society with 950,000 investing members, 150,000 borrowing members and assets of £9.4 billion.

Bank of Ireland has offered £600 million sterling for the 160 branch society and bank shareholders will get their chance to vote on the takeover on April 23rd.

If the deal is approved, Bank of Ireland would then transfer building society business into a new wholly owned bank subsidiary, Bristol and West plc.

All going well, the transfer of the building society business is expected to take place on July 28th, with payment to Bristol and West savers and borrowers to be made by August 25th.

Bank of Ireland will pay out £522 million in cash and will issue preference shares in Bristol and West plc worth some £79 million to the building society members. Payments to qualifying Bristol and West members will range from £250 to £6,000.

Shareholders with the maximum qualifying investment of £100,000 will get the top pay out of £6,000. An average two year qualifying member would get a cash payment of around £1,100.

The building society board has unanimously recommended that members vote for takeover by Bank of Ireland.

For the transfer to proceed at least 75 per cent of the qualifying investing members of Bristol and West who vote must vote in favour.

Also, the number who vote in favour must also be either at least half the number of all investors eligible to vote or must represent at least 90 per cent of total share account balances. The vote of the mortgage holders must result in a simple majority in favour.

Savers and borrowers could get payments ranging from £250 to £5,500 in the deal.