On Monday afternoon Freddie, Nigel’s chauffeur and general factotum, dropped Jinnie, Izzy and Sir Nigel off outside the offices of Mann, Coombes and Company. Freddie headed off in the Rolls to the public car park at the far end of the High Street from where Nigel was going to summon him with his mobile when they were finished. Immediately Jinnie entered the street lobby from which the stairs went up to the first-floor offices she saw it had been redecorated and new carpet, lighting and signage had been installed. The new pale blue and white colour scheme made the lobby and stairs look much more inviting. The two tub chairs in the entrance lobby, and instructions to press an intercom buzzer for assistance if you couldn’t tackle the stairs, was new. Jinnie approved.
At the top of the stairs the reception and waiting area had received a similar treatment to the downstairs lobby. Jinnie wondered if this was Belinda’s work, she had been quoting before she went to Barbados. The waiting area was now modern and bright and Jinnie realised the old wobbly metal partitions had been replaced with tape-jointed plasterboard and the door to the offices was now ash with a large, frosted-vision panel. Jinnie assumed it was a fire door as there was a closer on the waiting area side, previously the door had opened inwards which wouldn’t have met fire regulations. Jinnie thought, ‘This is silly, I’m now looking at offices like Belinda.’
Jinnie approached the new matching ash reception desk and one of the now uniformed receptionists looked up and said, “Good afternoon, how can I help you?” “Good afternoon,” replied Jinnie. “I’m Jinnie De Luca, and I have a one-thirty meeting with Mr Mann.” “Oh yes,” she replied. “Mr Mann told us you were coming in. If you would like to take a seat Dame Jinnie, I’m sure Mr Mann will be with you shortly.” “This is nice,” Nigel said to Jinnie, “clean, modern and tasteful.” “Yes,” replied Jinnie. “It’s not luxurious, but as you said, nice. It says to me we spend money sensibly and keep our fees down.”
The door in the partition swung open and Mr Mann said, “Good afternoon Dame Jinnie, would you and your colleagues like to come through to the main meeting room.” As Jinnie walked through the door she saw the lozenge let into the door that said FDS 60. Jinnie thought to herself, ‘I’m getting good at this, a 60-minute fire door with smoke seals.’ The corridor and the meeting room had also been refurbished to the same level and colour scheme. But the other change in the meeting room was wood framed glazed doors over the legal books that covered the walls. Jinnie said to Mr Mann, “I must say I am impressed by your refurbishment, it is very tasteful. But tell me, are the doors over the bookshelves for show or is there a practical reason?”
Mr Mann said, “The refurbishment contractor advised us that we didn’t really meet modern fire standards or disabled access requirements and for a solicitors’ office, that could be a disaster. The waiting area is now a 60-minute fire refuge, we have installed a wheelchair lift and the doors over the shelves are also 60-minute fire rated because some of those books are worth a lot of money.”
For the first time in a meeting with Mr Mann, Jinnie had nearly as many people on her side of the table and with Nigel she knew that he would miss nothing. Mr Mann opened the folder in front of him and extracted four A3 sheets stapled together in the corner. “This is a copy of the accounts for you Dame Jinnie. Let me explain that we agreed a valuation of several antiques and artworks with HMRC, and they took several of the paintings against Inheritance Tax. I understand they are of such importance that they will be going to the National Gallery. All the IHT, our fees and a few fees from the retirement home have been accounted for. So, the final sums you see are after tax and our fees and are what we will be transferring into your account and to the trust funds that have been agreed to open with Barclays.
“If you turn to page three you will see that the final inheritance is quite a bit more than we indicated to you last time we spoke. I did try to ring your mobile to get you to come in for an update but all I got was a message that the phone was turned off. It was only then that I read an article in the Potters Bar Press that you were unconscious in hospital in Barbados after being shot in a robbery. We did try to contact your husband but I’m afraid someone in your house thought we were scammers or the press.” “I’m afraid that was me,” said Izzy. “But when someone phones up out of the blue asking to speak to Mr De Luca on a financial matter and then starts demanding to know who they are speaking to, it’s hardly surprising I was suspicious.”
“I think can only apologise,” said Mr Mann. “I am afraid that was not very diplomatic of us. I think we must learn from the incident and work out better alternative lines of communication in the future. Anyway, as I was saying, on page three we give the final value of the estate after tax, fees and other deductions and it comes to £115,427,426.40p.” Jinnie felt faint and with a shaking hand reached for the litre bottle of chilled Highland Spring water in front of her and struggled to get the top off. Izzy took it from her and poured a glass for Jinnie, Sir Nigel and herself. As this was happening, Jinnie heard Nigel ask if Mr Mann would mind repeating that number and Sir Nigel wrote £115,427,426.40p on the pad in front of him and whistled.
Nigel said to Jinnie, “By my maths that means the twin’s trust funds are £11,542,745.64p each and you get £92,234,965.12p.” “Yes and No,” replied Mr Mann. “That is the amount that will go into the trusts initially, but the trustees can invest the money in certain ‘safe’ investments like government bonds. So, it should grow, even with fees, before they reach 18. Now we discussed before if you wanted to retain some of the assets like shares and property in their original form, and we have tried to do this where practical and we have used the agreed HMRC valuations for retained items and the sums raised where things were sold, this is normal practice. For example, we have sold the three retirement flats and included the money in the accounts but as you requested, we have retained the 15% of SuperBurger. We have sold the freeholds on all the domestic and most of the commercial properties. I remember you saying that you wondered if some could be retained as sandwich outlets, and we have kept three that we think might fall in that category.”
“As you probably remember, we found a safe deposit box rather late in the exercise and it rather messed up our calculation on what to sell and what to retain as after our last discussion we had started to sell things to pay the calculated IHT. But the safety deposit box was stuffed with cash and government bonds. Then there was an envelope containing further two deposit box keys, which apparently belonged to the other gentlemen. When we finally located these boxes we found more life insurance policies, cash and bonds. Well, to cut a long story short, we were able to retain all the shareholdings except the retirement home, so on page four you will find that your £92 odd million is split approximately 50-50 between cash and shares, with around £750,000 in the freeholds of the three commercial properties.”
“We need a few signatures, and we can transfer the cash directly to the account you informed us of, but the shares are a bit more difficult. Do you mind me asking if you have an electronic shareholder account?” “Actually, I do, some years ago my dad gave me some shares in Barclays Bank and I opened a Barclays Smart Investor Account to put them in. Then an aunt died and left me and my sister several thousand Centrica shares each and they went into the same electronic account. Although I hardly ever look at it I can view the account on my phone or my iPad using the same app as my current account.”
“Excellent,” said Mr Mann, “we use Barclays, and we operate client accounts through them. That means as soon as the paperwork is complete, I can transfer the cash to your account. I will have to let them know what is happening or they might worry about money laundering. The shares may take a bit longer because we must go through the registrars for each company’s shares and instruct them to transfer the shares to your account. Some registrars are much quicker than others. The bank knows we had control of the three deceased gentlemen’s holdings and have consolidated them into one and are used to solicitors moving holding’s around. If we submit the transfers electronically today, I suspect some registrars will act tomorrow and others will be a week or ten days before they show up in your Smart Saver account.”
“Now before we get you to sign anything I must warn you that I must report these transactions to the HMRC, and they will expect to hear from you that you have inherited these sums. Of course, the inheritance is tax paid, and you won’t get a bill for any of these holdings or the cash inheritance. But remember they will know what you hold so will expect tax on dividends, and Capital Gains Tax on profits when you sell.”
***
On leaving the solicitors office Jinnie said, “I need a strong coffee, have we moved into Maple House yet?” “Oh yes,” replied Sir Nigel. “Come on then,” said Jinnie, “I can kill two birds with one stone, see the new offices and get a coffee. Come with us Izzy we can be done well before we have to pick up the young millionaires.” They hurried down to the crossroads, crossed the street, and entered Maple House. The first thing Jinnie saw was the new Artisan Sandwich outlet. At this time of the afternoon it wasn’t terribly busy but was mainly selling coffees and some cake. As Jinnie hadn’t got a staff pass for Maple House yet, Sir Nigel used his to buy the three coffees at a substantial discount.
Similarly, Sir Nigel signed Jinnie and Izzy in and took them up in the lift to the Trattoria Trevi offices. Coming out of the lift into the core lobby, Jinnie wasn’t impressed but she knew it was the landlord’s demise. However, the entrance door was modern, looked extremely solid and was covered by a CCTV camera. Nigel offered his staff card to a pad next to the door and Jinnie heard the lock click open. Nigel led the party into the open plan area and said to Jinnie, “What do you think, I rather like it, modern, bright and airy.”
Jinnie looked around comparing the finished offices with the memory she had of the rendered images she had seen months ago. She couldn’t see where it differed. Looking down the row of glass offices, she could see offices occupied by Alberto, Giuseppe and Nigel, the rest of them empty. Sir Nigel continued, “The office next to Alberto’s is yours, next is Brian, then the other directors, but they share as they are rarely here, then me and the final one for Nigel as it’s nearest to the computer room. When we moved in the computers were slow, but after we migrated to SAP it’s been a revelation. Nigel kept saying ‘it’s not the computers it’s the system’ and we didn’t believe him, but it was true. Alberto is delighted, he said to me yesterday he wished we had gone to an enterprise system years ago. As you know I am a bit of a dummy around computers, but Nigel has been teaching me and my is he good. He has even set it up so I can log in from my office at home.”
Jinnie strolled around the office before pausing for a moment by one of the floor-to-ceiling windows and watched a double-decker bus going down Mutton Lane towards the station. The ambience in the office was extremely pleasant, there was a slight hum from the air conditioning and the occasional ring of a phone and a couple of people were having a conversation about something on a computer screen, but it was impossible to hear the conversation even though they were quite near. Sir Nigel saw where Jinnie was looking and said, “White noise. Nigel insisted we put in some noise generators, and it really works. I’ve never worked in such a pleasant environment.”
From the corner of her eye, Jinnie saw Alberto waving her into his office. The three of them joined Alberto in his office, he hugged Jinnie and said, “It’s lovely to see you. How are you? You’re looking good, will you be back soon?” Jinnie said, “When they released me from hospital, I had to promise to see my GP before going back to full-time work. I have an appointment tomorrow, but I’m feeling great, I can see no reason for him to keep me off work, especially as I can do most things from home. But this is lovely, Belinda has done it again, it looks fabulous. I’ll be happy to pop in here regularly.”
“It is good isn’t it, and this SAP thing is fabulous,” said Alberto. “I can keep an eye on all the business so much more easily. I didn’t realise just how bad the old system had got. But it’s so different, we had trainers from the suppliers here for a week, heaven knows how much it has cost but I think it was worth it. Brian says the accounts now are brilliant and his last monthly report was two days earlier than previously. The link to the DKL system used to groan but it is virtually instant now, we can now see our DKL sales real-time. Talking of real-time, Nigel said if I was here in the night I could see the TT Continental sales in real-time. So I came in on the way home last Friday and he was right. I could even see the bar sales as they happened!”
Jinnie smiled and asked, “Do we have an in-house expert who can teach me how things work.” Alberto pointed to a six-pod bench desk and said, “Those four run the place now, and we have expansion space, any of them will help you if you’re in trouble but Nigel is your man, he talks English and not computer-speak.” Alberto picked up his phone, pressed a button and waited a moment for the phone to be answered before saying, “Nigel, can you join us for a few minutes, Jinnie has popped in?” Nigel arrived carrying an entry card in a clear plastic wallet on a lanyard which after saying hello, he presented to Jinnie. “That’s your staff card, as CEO it will let you in anywhere, even the computer room. It has an RFID chip embedded in it so it only needs to be near one of the readers to work. Most people wear them on the lanyard round their necks but some of the men clip them to their belts.”
Looking at Nigel Jinnie said, “I don’t see yours”. Nigel answered, “That’s because some of my department and I are participating in a test where the RFID chip is injected under the skin on the back of our hands. We only have to wave our hand over a pad to activate it. Oh, and I nearly forgot, it allows you to buy coffee and sandwiches at cost.” Alberto then said, “Nigel, Jinnie hopes to be back at work very soon, do you think when she is, you can show her how to generate reports with SAP, I think you will find her an easier pupil to teach than me.” “Of course,” answered Nigel, “but if you want to use it on your home PC, I will have to download the client software. I’m down at Southampton for the rest of the week sorting out the chandler move so it can’t be before Monday, and we will need a few days.” “That suits me,” replied Jinnie. “If the doctor gives me the OK on Wednesday, I want to visit DKL and get up to date with them.
***
On the short ride back to Hadley Sir Nigel asked, “Have you thought about what you are going to do with your windfall.” “Well,” said Jinnie, “Paolo and I have a couple of ideas and we have talked to our financial adviser but all the shares I’ve inherited were much of what he advised to buy. But with all that cash we need to look at some other investments. Two things I definitely want to do are buy a house in Barbados and to extend the Hadley house. I want to have six bedrooms, all ensuite. I also need to put some money into Wedding Dress Bargains, it is just too small at the moment, we need more geographical spread and a full-time designer. As good as Andrew is, his full-time job is with Belinda, and we need a full-timer in that position. We also need an advertising campaign.”
“That’s still going to leave you a lot of cash,” said Nigel. “I can see you spending, say, £3 or £4 million on a house with six ensuite bedrooms and a pool. Half a million maximum on the house extension and, say, £1 million injected into the wedding dress business. Let’s call that £5.5 million, you will still need to invest around £40 million.” “That’s a lot of money,” said Jinnie, who thought for a few moments then said, “You worked as a broker, how many more shares would I need to get a seat on the board at SuperBurger?”
“Well, that’s interesting,” replied Nigel. “I think you already have enough, you will have 15% if my memory serves me right. You only need 10% to apply to be a director, but you must be invited to join the board and most companies would issue an invitation. But it really does depend on the company, they might see you as a threat and not want you on the board. On the other hand, they might welcome you aboard. Now with 15% you could cause trouble at an AGM, but to get control you would need a fraction over 50% but if you are thinking of a takeover, you would have to offer for all the shares you don’t own and without looking at the stock market value and the number of shares in issue, that could well be out of you financial reach.”
“I wasn’t looking to acquire the company,” said Jinnie. “I just want a little influence.” “Well, remember,” said Sir Nigel, “if you acquire 30% or more you are obliged to bid for 100% but people aren’t forced to sell to you. Now what I will say is that a form will be submitted that shows you have acquired 15% of the company when the shares are transferred to you so they will know what you have. Although in your case the shares will be shown as held by Barclays Stockbrokers and I doubt Barclays would release your name. The shareholders register must go to Companies House. It’s all transparent. As the shares were previously owned as three lots of 5%, SuperBurger probably weren’t interested, but one person with 15% is bound to interest them. As a broker, I would have advised you to be upfront with the company and write to the company and declare you have inherited 15% of the company, you are not looking to acquire the company, but you feel that level of shareholding merits a seat on the board. If they say ‘yes’, all well and good. If they say ‘no’, we’ll have to think of a new strategy.”
***
Freddie dropped them off at the house and the twins came running out complaining they had been a long time. Jinnie ruffled their hair and thought, ‘When do I tell them they are multi-millionaires’. She and Izzy headed into the kitchen where ‘Granny’ Walsh was making fairy cakes with the assistance of the twins who were now only interested in licking the cake mixing bowl. Mrs Walsh asked, “How did you get on?” Jinnie replied, “It is a long story so when you have got those cakes in the oven I’ll tell you over a cup of tea.”
With the cakes in the oven and Izzy entertaining the twins, Jinnie and her mum sat down with strong mugs of tea. Jinnie ran through what had happened at the solicitors and Mrs Walsh sat and listened with her mouth open. When Jinnie finished her tale, her mum said, “I’m not sure that has completely sunk in. Are you saying that the twins are both millionaires and you are now so rich it’s crazy?” “I suppose you could say that,” said Jinnie, “but the twins won’t actually get the money until they are 18 so technically, they’re not millionaires till then. But yes, you are right, I have inherited a fortune, and we could live off the dividends from the shares I have inherited alone. I haven’t really made up my mind what I am going to do with all the cash but I have decided to buy a big house in Barbados for holidays, probably near to Belinda’s, and I want to put a big extension on this house but that won’t use more than a fraction of the cash, Paolo and I will have a lot of thinking to do.”
***
On Tuesday mid-morning Jinnie checked her Barclays bank account, the balance showed well over £46,000,000 in her current account. She then hit the ‘show other accounts’ item and switched to her Smart Investor account. The heading instead of showing the usual several thousand pounds instead, showed the balance had leapt to over £15 million. Her heart jumped and she expanded the display by touching the Investment Account heading and the screen showed her normal holding in Barclays, Centrica, and a new holding in SuperBurger. Jinnie decided it was time to phone her bank branch.
The call was answered in a call centre somewhere, she guessed Scotland by the accent, and after answering the normal security questions to identify herself, explained that she wanted to talk to her branch manager as she wanted to discuss the large deposit that had landed in her account overnight. The voice at the other end of the phone said, “I’m afraid we don’t have a manager at your branch, we now have area managers, and they are far too busy to advise ordinary customers. I could make an appointment for one of our advisers to phone you to discuss your questions. Let me see, we could set up a call for a week tomorrow.”
Jinnie decided to get stroppy and said, “At the moment I have around £46 million in my current account, and shares in my Smart Saver Investment Account with another £15 million, within a week more shares will be added to that account taking it to over £45 million and you offer me a telephone chat with an adviser in over a week’s time. That simply is not good enough, I am sure that your competitors will be falling over themselves to have my accounts. And while we are at it, I think I could also transfer the business accounts of Dark Kitchens Limited and Trattoria Trevi Group.” The girl sputtered and said, “I’m sorry Mrs De Luca, I wasn’t aware we were dealing with such large sums and important accounts.” “Clearly”, said Jinnie, “you think nothing of ‘ordinary’ customers, and it’s Dame Jinnie.” Trying hard to recover the girl said, “I think I can promise that our area manager will ring you within 30 minutes.” “Good,” replied Jinnie, “I look forward to hearing from him.”
Twenty minutes later Jinnie’s phone rang, and the voice said, “Good morning Dame Jinnie, this is Robert Jones your Barclay’s area manager, I understand you wish to talk about a recent windfall.” “That’s correct Mr Jones,” said Jinnie. “I have come into a rather large inheritance and while I organise its investment, I want to have it in an interest-bearing account. Now it’s many millions, I don’t want to need to tie the money up for long-term as I want to be free to move it or parts of it as soon as my advisors find a good home for it.” “I’m sure we can help you there, Dame Jinnie,” said Jones. “If you will allow me a short time to sort out a proposal, I think we will be able to offer you the best returns on your money with immediate access. I think I could be at your house with a proposal about four this afternoon.” “OK, I will see you then,” replied Jinnie, “but you better have photo ID with you as my road is protected by armed police.”
In Chapter 9 – House Plans
© WorthingGooner 2024
