One aspect of Plessey Co Plc’s last minute efforts to retain the loyalty of its institutional shareholders that hasn’t been much highlighted is that many of them are big shareholders of GEC Plc as well, and Plessey has been arguing forcefully that GEC’s proposed carve up of Plessey with Siemens AG appears to benefit the West German much more than it does GEC itself, so that in the future, GEC may well find that it has simply been fattening frogs for snakes, and that its business is damaged by the competition that its own invitation of Siemens into the UK market – so that a vote for GEC will not only throw away all the potential the company argues is promised by an independent Plessey, but will lead to a poorer performing GEC as well; as a further inducement to shareholders to remain loyal, Plessey has promised to increase its dividend by 20% this year – it typically increases it by about 15% a year.
