Investors Chronicle- Brian Peart, Northern Rock‘s largest private shareholder, was looking forward to a quiet retirement after years of running his successful Durham-based building firm. His nest egg of 120,000 Northern Rock shares was his biggest investment. Now, estimating a personal loss of £500,000, he is preparing for a new role – lead plaintiff for the shareholders in the planned legal action.
"I hate this low attitude of the press that shareholders somehow don’t matter," he grumbles. "Dick Turpin would only rob people two at a time, but the government’s robbed 180,000 people in one go."
Post-nationalisation, Northern Rock’s two largest shareholders – hedge fund activists SRM and RAM – have lambasted the rumoured government offer of 5p a share. Privately, they must be hoping that the small shareholders – which made up 25 per cent of the Rock’s register – will shame politicians into offering more.
