I hope I've posted this in the correct place, if not please advise as to which forum I can post this on.

My parents bought 500 shares each of Alliance & Leicester Shares when they become a bank on April 21, 1997. They said that when they bought the shares, they were 59p per share or something like that. Can someone experienced tell me how I can find out what they should do at this point? I know that A&L is now acquired by Banco Santander. I also saw that A&L's shares are now about one third of what it was a year ago. However, I'd like to know if you have the shares since 1997, are you still better off now then if you have put the money in the bank and earned interest?

Also, the share prices are now in "point" or something like that, how can I find out what actually is the "price" as compared to the 59p?

Are there sites where I can also find historic prime interest rates for savings accounts from 1997 to now so if necessary, I can do a rough calculations of interest that could have been earned?

Thanks for any advice.

Hi

If you go to the alliance & leicester website there is a link to the Santander acquisition of Alliance and from there you can get to shareholder services which has a share calculator and other information/tools so you can find out the current value of your shares.

When Alliance converted to a bank your parents if they held accounts with the Alliance would probably have received some free shares and the option to subscribe for further shares at the offer price whatever that was.

As regards interest rates perhaps an indicator might be to go to the Bank of England website and download their file of base rates. These days top accounts pay over base but years ago a good rate was just below base.

Hi scowlsandgrowls, Thanks for the info. I went to the A&L bank site again. I was able to calculate value of the shares but the calculator for the change in value only goes back to 2003, while my parent's shares go back to 1997. Judging from what they think the share price was in 1997 (59p), it seems that the share price is now more than 5 times more (317p) so i guess it must be better off than any saving accounts (saving for 11 years). Am I correct? Or should I still go and do the interest calculations?

I read that they are predicting that share price will go up once the acquisition is done and they merge Abby National with A&L. Share prices are nowhere near what it was a year ago, but if it is going to go back up a little, maybe it's worth haning on to the shares for a little longer?

Thanks for any other advice.

Again looking at the Alliance website if your parents held qualifying accounts then they would have received a min 250 free shares.

As to buying additional shares 59p a share sounds rather on the low side to me. I would have thought the amount would have been more than this - maybe you could contact the Registrars (capita) to find out what the subscription price. also from the website your parents can register to see their history online and this may provide the information you are seeking.

As regards Santander, it may be worth keeping the shares in Santander. I did with my Abbey shares (I think they were about £6 at the time they got taken over on a 1:1 basis and the Santander shares have been as high as £10ish but now about £9. They pay dividends quarterly but the yield will be less than you received under the Alliance shares - over the last year the amount paid per share was about £0.40 ie about 4.4%.

Thanks for the info. I went to the site but I can only see historic share prices back to 2003. My parents got theirs in 1997. I've try searching the internet but couldn't find share prices that are that long ago. 59p is what they told me. They did say that they get some free shares. 250 shares sounds right.

Do you know where else I can found historic share price dating back 1997?

As for dividends, I found some figures (Total dividends per share) from 2003 to 2007. They are on average 50p per share. Does this mean that my parents would have got around 500 pounds per year for their shares? Or should I look at it another way? Because this sounds too high to me, but I don't know anything about this until now!

Thanks again!

Hi

When the A&L floated in '97 the shares were issued at 533p each. The 59p you refer to is actualy 50p. It's quoted on the physical share certificate, which I believe doesn't bear any relation to the market value of the shares. Unfortunately I don't know why they say 50p though (it's a mistry to me). So in answer to your question the shares are currently worth less than the were originally purchased for. They would have got an interim and final dividend every year for each of their shares, usually around 18p and 36p respectively.

Hope this helps.

Hi leicesterlad, I thought I posted a quick reply but I didn't see it here, so if this is a repeat, please don't mind!

Can you let me know where you found the floating share price in 1997? I didn't seem to be able to find anything before 2003, so the 533p per share is news to me.

Also, I looked on the A&L website that Total Dividends per Share is around 50p per year since 2003. So is this the number to use in calculations? I also couldn't find any dividends info before 2003. If you know where I can go, I'd be grateful if you can let me know.

I think the bottom line for my parents is that if they have bought some shares when A&L floated in 1997, how are they doing now? What they want is to get to a point that they are at least getting an equal amount to if they have stuck the money in a savings account. I would think that the dividends would have cover the interests at least because historic interest rates from 1997 onwards fluctuate between 1% to 6.06%. They would just like to know if they should sell now, or hold onto the shares and see what happens.

Thanks for any additional advice.

I found it on some paperwork I had from '97, must have written it down (sad I know).

At a guess yes I'd use 50p for the dividends. However Capita Registrars (08716640307) may have the exact historic info you need. To work out the annual return take the number of shares and times it by the dividend price. i.e. 500 x 0.50p = £250. I think you need to take into account that there would have been a 10% tax deduction on that though. Compare that to savings interest rates at 5% (gross) they would have got about £130 (if they pay tax only £104). So actually their return on investment has been good, it's just a shame the shares are lower than they actually paid for them.

Hope this helps