来源：《卫报》
原文刊登日期：2021年11月11日
本文适合2023考生
It was founded shortly after Victoria ascended the throne, and over the intervening 178 years a few changes have naturally been made. What was once the Liverpool Independent Legal Victoria Burial Society later became Liverpool Victoria, and now calls itself LV=. Where agents used to go door to door collecting pennies to cover funeral costs, today the brand is slapped on everything from pensions to pet insurance. The HQ has shifted from Liverpool to Bournemouth. But one big and rare thing remains in place: LV is still owned by its customers, all 1.2 million of them. That makes it one of Britain’s last great mutuals. For now.
这家企业是在维多利亚女王登基后不久建立的，在178年的时间里，自然发生了一些变化。曾经的利物浦独立合法维多利亚葬礼协会后来成为利物浦维多利亚，现在称自己为LV=。过去，保险经纪人挨家挨户销售保费仅为几便士的丧葬保险，如今，从养老金到宠物保险，这个品牌涉及了几乎所有保险产品。其总部已从利物浦迁至伯恩茅斯。但有一件大事和罕见的事情依然存在：LV仍然为其120万客户所有。这使它成为英国最后的大型共同基金之一。直到现在。
If all goes according to its board’s plans, the company will soon be sold to the giant American private equity firm Bain Capital. Members have until early next month to vote on the takeover, but the website presents it as a done deal. Directors claim the buyout offers “an excellent financial outcome for members”; most are promised £100 for surrendering their ownership of a major insurer – a paltry sum compared to the £6,000 members received when Scottish Widows was bought by Lloyds TSB more than 20 years ago. Directors also say the deal will give “unrivalled support for the LV brand”, although they have been tight-lipped about the 11 rival bids received, including from fellow mutual Royal London. Well-paid executives and their lavishly remunerated advisers have cooked up a boardroom deal that is bad for the rank and file who are now expected to rubber-stamp it. The lack of communication with policyholders and members is so bad that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has publicly chided LV.
如果一切按照董事会的计划进行，该公司将很快被出售给美国私募股权巨头贝恩资本。共同基金成员可以在下个月初之前对收购进行投票，但LV的网站称这是一项已经完成的交易。董事们声称，此次收购“为成员带来了极好的财务结果”;他们中的大多数人只要放弃一家大型保险公司的所有权，就能得到100英镑——与20多年前苏格兰寡妇保险公司被劳埃德TSB收购时获得的6000英镑相比，这只是微不足道的一笔钱。董事们还表示，该交易将为“LV品牌提供无与伦比的支持”，不过他们对收到的11份竞购要约守口如瓶，其中包括来自伦敦皇家互惠银行的竞购。高薪的高管们和他们报酬丰厚的顾问们炮制了一份对普通成员不利的董事会协议，而他们现在正被期待批准该协议。由于缺乏与保单持有人和共同基金成员的沟通，金融市场行为监管局(FCA)公开谴责了LV。
The would-be buyer has given no firm commitments about jobs or investment. Private equity groups have a long track record of minimal corporate stewardship and maximal extraction. No wonder Labour and other opposition parties are up in arms.
潜在的买家没有对就业或投资做出明确承诺。长期以来，私人股本集团一直以最少的管理和最大的榨取而著称。难怪工党和其他反对党会强烈反对。
An outcry at Westminster, allied with a rebellious membership, may just break up this particular boardroom party. But it is no way to run a takeover regime. Over the past few months, big names have been swallowed up by private equity, including the supermarket chain Morrisons, the outsourcing firm G4S and the retirement-home provider McCarthy & Stone. In the first six months of this year alone, private equity paid £34bn for UK plc: a substantial reconfiguration of corporate Britain, which largely happened out of the glare of the press and parliament. As the FCA notes, it has no legal right to consider the corporate form of potential buyers, whether they are private equity barons or social enterprises. It is high time MPs rectified that. For too long, the political class has turned a blind eye to who owns our newspapers, banks and water companies – and to what end. But ownership matters. Just ask the 12 firms queueing up to buy LV.
威斯敏斯特的强烈抗议，加上不同意收购的共同基金成员，可能会使这个特殊的董事会团伙分崩离析。但这不是管理收购机制的方式。在过去的几个月里，一些大牌公司被私募股权公司吞并，其中包括连锁超市莫里森斯、外包公司G4S和养老院提供商麦卡锡与斯通。仅在今年头6个月，私人股本就斥资340亿英镑用于收购英国的股份有限公司：这是英国企业界的一次重大重组，这在很大程度上是在媒体和议会的关注下发生的。正如FCA指出的那样，它自身没有法律授权考虑潜在买家的公司形式，无论他们是私人股本巨头还是社会企业。现在是议员们纠正这一点的时候了。长期以来，政治阶层对谁拥有我们的报纸、银行和水务公司以及为了什么目的视而不见。但是所有权很重要。问问排队购买LV的12家公司就知道了。