LWT (Stop Press)
The following letter has been received from LWT as the SPECTATOR goes to press: My Chairman, Mr Aidan Crawley, has passed on to me your letter to him dated 5th January in which you raise certain comments about the transfer of shares in this Company originally held by the General Electric Company Limited to the News of the World Organisation Limited.
I am enclosing herewith a copy of a letter dated 8th January from our legal advisers, Linklaters & Paines, which answers the points you raise.
The original shareholders, in July 1967, who have sold their shares to outside parties and the shareholdings involved are:
Ordinary Shares
Cyril Bennett 300 General Electric Company Limited 1,125 Clive Irving William Collins Sons and Company Limited
'A' Ordinary
Shares
112,500 29,250 22,500 The relevant passage in Linklaters & Paines' letter reads:
(b) 'In the case of Ordinary shares, special provisions apply under Article 36. 'A holder of Ordinary shares wishing to effect a transfer is required to give a notice which constitutes LWT his agent for the sale of the shares at "the prescribed price" to such persons and in such proportions as the directors shall, with the approval of the Indepen- dent Television Authority decide. When the GEC shares became avail- able the directors found a purchaser and the approval of the Independent Television Authority was obtained."
Why did Mr Crawley and the board de- liberately plan to cede control of the group
to a newcomer in defiance of the spirit, if not the letter, Qf the Articles of Association?
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