Electricity Act 1947

20Compensation to holders of securities of bodies other than local authorities.

(1)Every holder of securities of any body to whom' this Part of this Act applies, not being securities of a local authority or a composite company, shall be entitled to be compensated by the issue to him by the Central Authority, in accordance with the provisions of the Third Schedule to this Act, of British Electricity Stock of such amount as in the opinion of the Treasury is at the vesting date of a value equal to the value of the said securities held by him, regard being had (in estimating the value of the stock so issued) to the market value of government securities at the vesting date:

Provided that—

(a)if the whole of the beneficial interest in any such securities was, immediately before the vesting date, vested in any body to whom this Part of this Act applies, no compensation shall be payable in respect of those securities and the securities shall be extinguished on the vesting date;

(b)if the holder of any such securities was such a body, but the whole of the beneficial interest was not so vested, the stock issued as aforesaid in respect of those securities shall be held by the Central Authority, and the said Schedule shall have effect as if the Authority were the holder of those securities; and

(c)any stock issued as aforesaid in respect of securities guaranteed by the Treasury shall be of the same nominal amount, shall carry interest at the same rates and payable at the same dates, and shall if redeemable be redeemed in the same manner and at the same times and by payment of the same amounts, as in the case of the securities.

(2)For the purposes of this section, the value of any securities of any such body which were quoted in the Stock Exchange Official Daily List on all six of the following dates, that is to say, the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth days of November, nineteen hundred and forty-six, shall, subject as hereinafter provided, be deemed to be the average of the mean of the quotations therefor appearing in the said list on those dates, such addition, if any, being made to that average as is necessary to make it a complete multiple of one penny:

Provided that where—

(a)quotations for the securities appeared in the said list on any of the following dates thereinafter referred to as " the alternative dates "), that is to say, the fifteenth day of February, the fifteenth day of March, the sixteenth day of April, the fifteenth day of May, the fifteenth day of June, and the sixteenth day of July, nineteen hundred and forty-five; and

(b)the average mentioned in the foregoing provisions of this subsection is less than the average of the mean of the quotations for the securities appearing in the said list on all the alternative dates on which a quotation therefor so appeared;

the value of the securities for the purposes of this section shall be deemed to be the average of the mean of the quotations therefor appearing in the said list on the alternative dates.

(3)Where, in the case of any class of securities to which the last foregoing subsection applies, there has been at any time after the eighth day of November, nineteen hundred and forty-six, a fresh issue of securities of that class, the value of every security of that class for the purposes of this section shall, instead of being determined under the last foregoing subsection, be deemed to be the average of the values of all the securities of that class calculated on the basis that—

(a)the value of each of the securities comprised in that issue is the price at which it was issued, and

(b)the value of the remaining securities is the value which those securities had for the purposes of this section immediately before the issue took place.

(4)Where, at any time after the eighth day of November, nineteen hundred and forty-six, any securities to which subsection (2) or subsection (3) of this section applies have been converted into securities of a different nominal value—

(a)the value of those securities as so converted shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to be a value bearing to the value which the securities had for the purposes of this section immediately before the conversion took place the same proportion as the nominal value of the securities as converted bears to the nominal value of the securities immediately before the conversion took place; and

(b)the last foregoing subsection shall apply to securities which have been converted as aforesaid, but if a part only of a class of securities has been converted as aforesaid, the converted securities shall, for the purposes of the last foregoing subsection, be treated as securities of a different class from that of the unconverted securities.

(5)Where a new class of securities has been issued at any time after the first day of November, nineteen hundred and forty-six, the value of securities of that class for the purposes of this section shall be deemed to be the price at which they were issued, and the last two foregoing subsections shall apply to any fresh issue or conversion of securities of that class.

(6)If any question arises under any of the last four foregoing subsections as to the value of any securities, it shall be settled by agreement between the Minister and the stockholders' representative appointed under the next following section or, in default of such agreement, determined by arbitration under this Act.

(7)For the purposes of this section, the value of any securities of any such body, not being securities to which subsection (2), (3), (4) or (5) of this section applies, shall be such value as may be agreed between the Minister and the said stockholders' representative or, in default of such agreement, as may be determined by arbitration under this Act, and the arbitration tribunal, in determining the value of those securities, shall have regard, as far as may be, to the value of securities to which subsection (2) of this section applies (as determined under that subsection), being securities which, as respects all matters affecting their value, are most nearly comparable to the first named securities, and if, in relation to any class of securities to which this subsection applies, such a fresh issue or conversion of securities as is mentioned in subsection (3) or subsection (4) of this section has occurred, the arbitration tribunal shall also have regard, as far as may be, to the manner in which the value of securities is to be determined in cases to which the said subsection (3) or subsection (4) applies.

(8)In this section—

• the expression " the Stock Exchange Official Daily List " means the publication known as the Stock Exchange Daily List of Officially Quoted Securities which is published by and under the authority of the Council of the Stock Exchange, London;

• the expression " quotation " has the same meaning as in the said list and, accordingly, does not include the statements of the business that was done;

• the expression " the mean of quotations " means the average of the two figures shown in the list on the date in question in respect of the security in question under the heading " Quotations ".

(9)For the purposes of this section and the following provisions of this Part of this Act, the securities of a body to which the same rights attach shall be deemed to constitute a class of securities.