NIB demutualisation alienates members

Members of NSW based health insurer NIB who challenged the allocation of shares as part of its $500 million plan to list on the sharemarket have had their complaints rejected by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

ASIC will notify any of the fund’s 320,000 policyholders who lodge complaints that its role in overseeing NIB’s conversion was limited to ensuring the information in the 128 page booklet about the demutualisation plan was neither false nor misleading.

The complaints centred on rules outlined in the explanatory statement, which set aside a bigger number of shares for those policyholders with family membership as opposed to single status.

Greater allocations were also based on the number of years people had been members of the fund, which began operating at BHP’s former Newcastle steelworks as a not-for-profit organisation in 1953.

Almost 95% of the 100,000 policyholders who voted supported demutualisation.

The fund is considering floating later this year.