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Are you owed part of £1.8m fortune?
A £1.8 million fortune is today waiting to be snapped up by hundreds of lucky Peterborough people.
A 1.8 million fortune is today waiting to be snapped up by hundreds of lucky Peterborough people.The credit-crunch busting jackpot is owned by 2,021 former customers of insurance giant Standard Life.
But despite two years of painstaking searching, the company has not been able to trace the owners of the cash and shares bonanza.
And in the case of one lucky person in Peterborough he or she stands to receive an 8,000 windfall. The average individual amount payable is likely to be 863.
A spokesman for Standard Life said: "We have the names and addresses of the owners – but have simply not been able to trace them.
"We suspect that these people have probably moved to new homes, but we have not had any luck in finding where they have gone."
Now the company has launched a global search in a bid to track down the owners of its cash and shares.
The 1,890,791 Peterborough pot is the 10th largest in the country. London is the biggest, with 12,609,983 still to be claimed. The values are based on a share price of 2.30 each.
A staggering 184 million in cash and shares has been left unclaimed nationwide since Standard Life floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2006.
That move transformed the 9 billion turnover company from a business owned by its customers to an institution with ready access to finance for expansion, but controlled by big investors.
But the company's conversion meant that all its customers, who held policies with the company, such as pensions, endowment mortgages and savings bonds, were entitled to shares in the company.
The spokesman said: "Since 2006, Standard Life has returned the equivalent of 100 million in unclaimed cash and shares to more than 95,000 people worldwide.
"But now we are searching for 200,000 people across the globe who are entitled to a slice of unclaimed shares and cash.
"However, this will be the largest search campaign yet, as Standard Life has enlisted the help of specialists Georgeson to manage the search to reunite its people with their unclaimed assets.
"Zambia, Tanzania, Iceland, the Bahamas and Israel are just some of the countries that will feature in the global search to track down the rightful owners of the cash and shares."
However, any would-be claimants need to bear in mind that they have until July 10, 2016 to claim. After that date the money can be used by the company to donate to charity.
Assistant group company secretary for Standard Life Paul McKenna said: "This is a very large pot of shares and cash we're looking to find the rightful owners for. Many of these customers might not have realised in the first place that they were entitled to cash or shares from demutualisation.
"Maybe some people haven't checked the paperwork that we've sent to them and simply don't realise they are, or were a customer of ours; or maybe you've lost a loved one and weren't aware they were entitled to cash or shares."
Anyone who would like to speak to Standard Life should call 0845 275 3000.
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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