Hilary Benn, the overseas-development secretary and the bookies' early favourite, struggled to secure the votes he needed because of conveniently timed press interest in some personal shareholdings that turned out to be much ado about nothing.
Even when a would-be investor succeeds in locating shares to buy, managers can turn shareholding into a painful experience.
The government said the changes would boost productivity, by allowing shorter shareholding periods, which in turn encourages serial entrepreneurs.
Cross-shareholdings remained routine.For most of the postwar period, the arrangement was highly lucrative.
Through Speed Investments, these have a 75% shareholding in SLEC Holdings, which in turn owns the cascade of companies that run F1 (see table 1).Incredibly, despite this majority shareholding, the banks do not have board control in any of the companies below SLEC.
The club declined to comment on the accounts, but in his chairman's notes introducing the figures, Fernandes said: "When, alongside my business partners, I purchased a majority shareholding... my goal was to turn QPR into an established Premier League club.
Two weeks ago, the bank received a €4.5bn loan that the state turned into a 45% shareholding in Bankia's parent company, BFA.
He took out a stock certificate made in Hainan: "Look, this is just a receipt they bought on the streets!" As it turned out, the experiment on shareholding companies had started a new national craze.
But the company's shareholdings are about to turn over as arbitrageurs race in to acquire Netflix stock in anticipation of a sale.
The chairman's suggestions have in turn been refuted by Macklin, whose shareholding represented about 1.5% of Kilmarnock's shares.
