Bernt offering

It’s pointless being a chairman if you can’t win over the board on something as serious as a takeover. So Bernt Magnusson is right to quit his job as chairman of Skandia. He had failed to persuade a majority of the Swedish insurer’s directors to share his support for a E4.6bn bid from South Africa’s Old Mutual. Magnusson had, however, won over many of Skandia’s institutional and hedge fund investors. And these shareholders must now look to Goldman Sachs to protect their interests. Skandia hire...