Tell Sid he's 400% better off

Privatisation ignited interest in share holding

British Gas has split again, giving a third company to watch for those who took part in the 1986 privatisation. Sarah Pennells reports.

From Monday there is a new name on the stock exchange - Lattice.

Not a cake or garden company, but part of BG, which used to be British Gas.

British Gas itself has gone through a number of changes since it was privatised in 1986.

Its privatisation sparked huge interest in private share ownership.

Indeed, the Tell Sid advertising campaign remains one of the enduring images of the wave of privatisations during the 1980s in the UK.

Those who held onto shares in companies like BG - formerly British Gas - have done well.

Triple split

Morvyn Whyte, from Redmayne, Bentley Stockbrokers, says BG has "performed as well as, if not better, than most of the privatisations".

Those private investors who held onto their British Gas shares have seen them rise in value by 400%.

But they've also seen a number of changes, both to the shares they hold as British Gas has split into a number of smaller companies and the share-owning culture itself.

British Gas split into two businesses in 1997. It became BG and Centrica, BG being the pipeline business and Centrica the supplier.

Centrica of course has gone on to establish the Goldfish brand and bought the AA, amongst other things.

Now BG is splitting into Lattice and BG International.

Telephone and internet trading

Lattice will concentrate on gas transporting in the UK, with Transco being its best known trading name.

BG International will be an exploration and production company

It all seems fitting for a time when share ownership has been soaring, spurred on by the arrival of telephone and internet share dealing services.

In the early 1980s just a few years before British Gas was privatised, the City was a very different place, and share ownership seemed the preserve of suited city gents.

If you had a top hat - that was even better.

These days, the London Stock Exchange is still there - but the dealers have moved out. And private investors are on the increase.

The internet helps further, providing information that has until now only been available to city professionals.

It all seems very different from the early 1980s - a time that Sid and the other investors, would not want to return.