The merger, which was announced on 6 March 2006, will be sent to eligible members of Lambeth and they will have the opportunity to vote in relation to the proposed merger at the Annual General Meeting of the Society taking place on 25 May 2006, notice of which is included in the merger booklet.
Subject to approval by members of Lambeth and confirmation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), the proposed merger is expected to be effective on 30 September 2006.
Key points contained in the merger booklet include:
- A merger bonus of 8.4 per cent will be paid to qualifying shareholding members.The bonus to qualifying shareholding members will be subject to a minimum payment of £400 (pre-tax) and a maximum payment of £2,500 (pre-tax). The bonus to qualifying borrowing members will be £400 (pre-tax).
- On the effective date the combined society will be named Portman Building Society with Lambeth Building Society relinquishing its name.
- The combined building society will be ranked third largest building society in the UK and remain a mutual owned by its members.
- There will be no compulsory redundancies within the branch network as a direct result of the merger. Portman will also offer jobs to all Lambeth’s head office staff at Portman’s main offices in Bournemouth or Wolverhampton, together with relocation benefits. Those head office staff unable to make a move to either of these locations will receive generous redundancy compensation.Lambeth’s head office is expected to close by 30 June 2007.
- The operations of Portman and Lambeth are geographically complementary.
Chris Radford, chief executive of the Lambeth Building Society, said: “The Board is unanimously recommending the proposed merger with Portman as being in the best interests of the members of Lambeth and will be encouraging eligible members to support the deal. This is an exciting and important decision for Lambeth which we believe allows our members to continue to benefit over the long term from competitive products supported by excellent service and a wider branch network in the South of England."
