U.K. BANKING HEAD RESUMES ATTACK ON CITY PREDATORS
The Governor of the Bank of England,
Robin Leigh-Pemberton, repeated his criticism of City
predators, describing them as "thoroughly irresponsible."
    "I have been concerned when predators have sought to use a
minority shareholding to unsettle a perfectly well-managed
company and to create an atmosphere in which a bid becomes
daily expected," he said in a speech to the Industrial Society.
    "Such activity can amount to a thoroughly irresponsible
exercise of shareholder power, and an abuse of the arrangements
we have for the protection of shareholders' interests," he said.
    Leigh-Pemberton was resuming a theme he developed in a
speech last week, when he attacked the practice of "putting a
company into play."
    This is when predators use a minority shareholding to force
a company's management into action which will raise the
company's share price. The predator then withdraws, taking
substantial profits.
    In today's speech, Leigh-Pemberton said it was hard to find
the right tightrope to walk between intervention and adherence
to a free market philosophy.
 REUTER
