CITY AND SUBURBAN
A little Norwich is a dangerous thing not all the candidates pass
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
Afriend of mine who is chairman of a public company got a stiff letter from Michael Sandland at the Norwich Union. Mr Sandland is the Norwich's chief invest- ment manager and a member of the Asso- ciation of British Insurers' investment com- mittee. He wrote to inquire, on behalf of a posse of institutional shareholders, why my friend's company was not being governed in accordance with the Cadbury code and what he meant to do about it. I advised my friend to give the retort courteously, as fol- lows: 'Dear Mr Sandlands, Thank you for your letter, whose contents I have noted. I take it that everything is hunky-dory at the Norwich Union. If this is not so, however, and if there is any point on which you would like to have my guidance, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.' This seems to have dealt with the matter, for at the Norwich Union, all is less than hunky- dory. Its sales force has been grounded and forced to sit an examination, which many of them found too difficult. For their deficien- cies and for its lack of control, the Norwich has been fined £300,000 with another £25,000 in costs. The chairman of Norwich Union — now retiring — is Michael Fal- con, a director of a local brewery, and I cannot call his a first-division board. (It includes an Andrew Buxton, but not the one who is chairman of Barclays — he is a Suffolk Buxton, and this one must be Nor- folk.) Still, Mr Falcon need have no fear of a stiff letter from Mr Sandlands, complain- ing of the Norwich's corporate governance, which is, in any case, Cadbuarially correct. No posse of institutional shareholders will round the board up, for the Norwich has none. It is a mutual society owned by its Policy-holders, who are now £325,000 worse off. If they have questions to ask or even votes to cast, they might care to attend next week's annual meeting, which has been convened for Friday, 13 May.
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