Advantage ICI
A MONTH into the phoney war, and Imperial Chemical Industries has the early advantage. ICI has assumed, ever since Hanson turned up on its share register, that this war is real. Sir Denys Henderson when he became chairman made sure that ICI had a 'war book' of plans in reserve, for the company is not used to takeover warfare — it was last in a contested bid 30 years ago, when it went for Courtaulds, lost, and lost the taste for that way of business. Now, though, it has a war cabinet. Sir Denys and three co-directors — Ronnie Hampel, Frank Whiteley, and the new finance director Colin Short meet daily, each covering his own stretch of the battle-front. They are now busy with the defence of the pension fund, which, though it may never appear in bid docu- ments, is so often a bidder's prime target. (When Hanson took over Imperial, the tobacco group, the pension fund may have been worth as much as the company, and had certainly been better managed.) Pat- rols have gone out on reconnaissance into the Hanson accounts, there has been skir- mishing as far away as Panama, and if war became general ICI would plainly seek to carry it into the enemy camp. What ICI has not done is to play the patriotic card, asking to be defended as a great national institution. The trade minister, Peter Lil- ley, is unsympathetic to such claims -- but ICI can count on its supporters to make them. I judge that the political mood has turned against the break-up artists and would no longer greet a bid for ICI with a cheery 'Let 'em all come!' Indeed, time may be running short for Lord Hanson, for he must assume — and this may be part of his calculations — that a Labour govern- ment would leave a bid stone dead.
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