Alliance & Leicester
Encyclopedia : A : AL : ALL : Alliance & Leicester
Alliance & Leicester plc (LSE: [AL.]
It was formed in 1997 by the floatation of the former Alliance & Leicester Building Society on the London Stock Exchange. It is listed on the FTSE 100. Its headquarters are in Carlton Park, a business park in Narborough, south of Leicester in England.
The four business sectors are:
- mortgage lending & investments,
- personal banking,
- commercial banking
- treasury.
The former building society was formed by the merger of the Alliance Building Society (originally based in and called the Brighton & Sussex) and the Leicester Building Society on October 1, 1985 [link]. In 1990, the society acquired Girobank, a major banking services provider to small businesses from the Post Office. With other large building societies such as the Halifax and Woolwich, the Alliance & Leicester decided to float the society on the London Stock Exchange, generating windfall payments to members worth up to £5,000 each. Floatation took place on April 21, 1997, and the company entered the FTSE 100.
In the years after floatation, the Alliance & Leicester has not been a star performer in the banking world. Its small size means it cannot compete with the larger UK banks on a large scale. However, restructuring and the booming UK housing market has powered profit growth.
Alliance & Leicester has a subsidiary operating in the international market and based on the Isle of Man.