By John Willman, Banking Editor The Financial Times December 17, 2000 Twelve central bankers have been threatened with legal action by a Paris-based shareholders' group unless they vote against terms offered by the Bank for International Settlements to buy back the 13.73 percent of its shares in private hands. Deminor, a corporate governance consultancy that has been at the centre of several battles to defend shareholders' rights, says the SFr16,000 ($9,000) a share offered by the BIS is too low. It is representing some of the 6,000 institutional and individual shareholders and says they are being bought out compulsorily at a 53 per cent discount to the net asset value of the shares. The consultancy is putting extra pressure on three central bank governors: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve; Jean-Claude Trichet of the Bank of France; and Guy Quaden of the Belgian national bank. They represent the three central banks whose shares were sold on to private individuals because they did not wish to subscribe for them when the BIS was created in 1930. These shares were sold without voting rights, which were retained by the central banks and can be used at the BIS annual meeting on January 8, where the buyback is due to be approved. "If they cast their votes in favour, they are approving a project in which they are the only beneficiaries since they will repurchase the shares at a price below their real value," said Fabrice Remon, a Deminor partner. The BIS wants to buy back the shares because it says it is difficult to reconcile shareholder value with the bank's role in promoting global financial stability. The shares, which are thinly traded on three stock markets, are only partly paid and transfers require the bank's approval. The BIS is the world's oldest international financial institution and was set up to distribute German war reparations. -END- -------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/126/_/977110981/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_->