Barclays 2003 Annual Report Download - page 143

23 Other assets
2003 2002
£m £m
Own shares 99 55
Balances arising from off-balance sheet financial instruments 15,812 13,454
Shareholders’ interest in the long-term assurance fund 478 867
London Metal Exchange warrants and other metals trading positions 1,290 829
Sundry debtors 2,156 1,634
19,835 16,839
Own shares represent the cost of shares held by employee benefit trusts, to the extent that the cost has not yet been expensed to the profit and loss
account.
The total number of shares held in employee benefit trusts at 31st December 2003, including those represented by the balance sheet value, was
82.8m (2002: 72.5m). Dividend rights had been waived on 1.6m (2002: 3.7m) of these shares. The market value of the shares based on the year-end
share price of £4.98 (2002: £3.85) was £412m (2002: £279m). As at 31st December 2003, 7.3m (2002: 4.3m) of the total shares held in the trusts
were exercisable under options granted.
24 Retail long-term assurance funds
The increase/(decrease) in the shareholders’ interest in the retail long-term assurance funds in the UK is calculated as follows:
2003 2002
£m £m
Value of shareholders’ interest at beginning of year, before non-recourse borrowing 867 884
Non-recourse borrowing in the year (400) –
Value of shareholders’ interest at beginning of year, after non-recourse borrowing 467 884
Value of the shareholders’ interest at end of year 478 867
Increase/(decrease) in the value for the year after tax 11 (17)
Decrease in the value for the year before tax (42) (55)
During the year non-recourse floating rate notes were issued. The first £400m of emerging surplus from the retail long-term assurance funds is used
to repay these notes with the remaining surplus being available to shareholders.
In addition to the increase (2002 a decrease) in the shareholders’ interest in the retail long-term assurance funds detailed above, £9m (2002: £4m)
of other income from the long-term assurance business has been recognised in the year.
The principal economic assumptions used in calculating the value of the shareholders’ interest were as follows:
2003 2002
% %
Risk discount rate (net of tax) 7.3 7.0
Gross United Kingdom equities returns for unit linked business (net of irrecoverable tax credit) 7.2 6.8
Gross United Kingdom equities dividend yield for unit linked business (net of irrecoverable tax credit) 2.5 2.8
Gross property and overseas equities returns for unit linked business 7.8 7.5
Gross fixed interest returns for unit linked business 4.8 4.5
Renewal expense inflation (including effect of fixed costs) 4.8 4.4
The retail life-fund assets attributable to policyholders comprise:
2003 2002
£m £m
Assets:
Investments 7,329 7,199
Group undertakings –5
Other debtors 984 205
8,313 7,409
Current liabilities (236) (125)
8,077 7,284
Barclays PLC Annual Report 2003 141