CITY AND SUBURBAN
The Mond test why ICI doesn't mix with its two noble raiders
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Iwas brought up to take the Great Company seriously — the phrase being shorthand for Imperial Chemical Indus- tries. That may be why I cannot take seriously the idea of Lord Hanson and Lord White taking it over. There has been nothing quite like it since the Saatchi brothers offered to set themselves up as High Street bankers. Indeed, I wonder whether the two noble raiders take it seriously themselves. They have given the tree a good shake, and now they can stand underneath it and see what falls off. Climbing to the top of it is another matter. They have not got where they are by running businesses based on research, in- novation and technical excellence. They might find it demanding, for, spry as they seem, they are both well past ICI's retire- ment age. They could seek to lighten the load by selling bits off, as is their style. ICI Pharmaceuticals, it is said, could be sold for a good price, and contains hidden value. Hidden from whom? From all the Investment analysts who spend their time crawling over ICI's accounts? Still, if that were what ICI shareholders wanted, they could do it by themselves and for them- selves, without their lordships' interven- tion — as Sir James Goldsmith, looking back at his raid on BAT, could tell them. If ICI's directors were tempted to think that the great company was sacrosanct or im- mortal, they know better now. They and their predecessors, though, have always seen it as a national asset with national responsibilities. That goes back to ICI's origins — the merger in the 1920s, de- signed to create a British science-based company which would be second to none. `We are on trial', said Sir Alfred Mond, `before the eyes of the entire world and especially the eyes of our fellow-citizens. We are not merely a body of people carrying on industry in order to make dividends, we are much more. British commercialists and British technicians will . be judged by the entire world from the success we make of this merger.' That is still the test for an ICI merger, and I cannot think that the two noble raiders stand up to it.
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