Two very important articles. The Laws in the UK got it right at long last.



> Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:40:19 -0800
> Subject: HLS moving back to UK after AR crackdown (2 items)
>
> Telegraph
> Huntingdon Life Sciences to move back to UK after crackdown on animal
> rights militants
> Huntingdon Life Sciences, the medical research company subjected to a
> violent campaign of intimidation by animal rights activists, is
> planning to relocate back to Britain, eight years after it was forced
> abroad.
> by Andrew Alderson, Chief Reporter
> 17 Jan 2009
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopi...-militants.html
>
> Huntingdon Life Sciences - Huntingdon Life Sciences to move back to UK
> after crackdown on animal rights militants
>
> The move comes after police success in targeting and jailing those
> responsible for a ten-year hate campaign against Huntingdon Life
> Sciences (HLS), its 1,700 staff and its customers.
>
> Seven leading Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) activists will be
> sentenced tomorrow for their part in a campaign of violence and
> intimidation.
>
> Police sources estimate that after the sentencing up to three quarters
> of the most violent activists will be behind bars. They suspect there
> are only about 20 to 25 Shac activists willing to risk imprisonment
> for their cause.
>
> In 2001, HLS had to relocate its headquarters from Huntingdon,
> Cambridgeshire, to Delaware, America, when its bank, The Royal Bank of
> Scotland [RBS], severed its links with the research company after its
> staff were threatened with violence. None of the other major banks
> wanted to take on company as a customer.
>
> HLS had to borrow money at high interest rates and have an account
> directly with the Bank of England in order to pay routine bills in the
> UK.
>
> Andrew Baker, the chairman and chief executive of Life Sciences
> Research, HLS's parent company, said: "We intend to return to Britain
> in the near future. We are an English company – we shouldn't be based
> in America."
>
> "We are in the middle of trying to get an English bank account and an
> English loan. We currently have a $60 million loan (£41.2 million) in
> the US and about $30 million (£20.6 million) in cash. But we are
> borrowing from foreign lenders.
>
> "We are paying an interest rate – of more than ten per cent – and
> being treated as if we were a bankrupt company when, in fact, we are
> highly profitable.
>
> "This is grossly unfair. On top of this, like other companies, we are
> also a victim of the credit crunch and suffer from the banks not
> wanting to lend money."
>
> Hundreds of staff still work at the company's labs in Huntingdon. Mr
> Cass is confident that its headquarters staff will soon be able to
> move back to Britain and that it will soon have "normal banking
> facilities" here.
>
> "Brian Cass [the chief executive of HLS] is leading a really heavy
> push to achieve this," said Mr Baker, a multi-millionaire Briton who
> now lives in America.
>
> "If it wasn't for US support – and help from the British Government –
> we would have gone under when the Royal Bank of Scotland pulled the
> plug on us," he said.
>
> "But despite all our problems we have done very well. We have
> continued to grow as a company: since 2001 we have doubled in size, 80
> per cent of our sales now are English based and we sell about £130
> million of goods a year. We are solidly profitable.
>
> "In banking terms, we want to borrow one year's profit – about £30
> million – from a British bank in order to expand the business still
> further. We are hoping the [British] Government will now support us in
> our aims."

Last edited by Mira Trapper; 01/19/09 10:15 PM.

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