Offers we can refuse
GOODBYE, we may hope, to our clumsy and costly way of selling shares, and, to Sid, a sailor's farewell. The stuffers argue that to release BP's underwriters from their obligations would be to destroy the system of fixed-price offers for sale. Vola- tile markets have already destroyed it. We saw that when prices were rocketing up- wards and underwriting was the quickest way to make millions without getting out of bed. We see it now that the prices which went up with the rocket have come down with the stick. (Keith Best, where are you when we need you?) The American invest- ment houses have got the worst of the old and new worlds — committed to taking stocks onto their own books, to be sold on to their customers (the American system) but left at risk for weeks (the British system). Dry your eyes for Goldman Sachs, but not even the most persuasive privatiser will ever persuade them to do that again.
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