The best part about December is Christmas - the festivities, the lights and of course the mince pies. But who can forget Santa Claus? As part of our weekly back in the day section, today, we look at Money Management’s December 1990 issue which had a very festive cover page - Santa Claus chilling out on a beach with lots of presents around him, and of course showing off his hairy legs.
The year 1990 was significant for the UK. In November, Margaret Thatcher stood down from the office of Prime Minister and was succeeded by John Major. It was also the time when the UK economy had started to slow down and in the early 1990s slid into a recession.
But for now let us turn our focus back to the magazine. The cover story analysed the trends in holiday property markets. According to the feature, investors who were nervous about equity markets and depressed about the weather may have been tempted to put their money into holiday property schemes and clubs.
The story discussed property schemes that invested specifically in high-class holiday accommodation and give some form of ‘rent-free holiday’ in place of a share dividend. One of the oldest schemes the article mentions is the Swiss based holiday club Hapimag. This scheme purchased a variety of town and country accommodations for its members. With a total of 70,000 investors, the scheme had 2,300 apartments in 12 countries.
According to the scheme, members purchased shares at an internally agreed price. Each share gave 12 annual points and accommodation cost between four and 24 points. These points could be stored for five years or borrowed in advance. The story also featured similar holiday schemes that were popular back then.
The magazine also featured a detailed survey on Personal Equity Plans (PEPs). In the later part of 1990, equity markets had plummeted on the back of Gulf war fears and an incipient economic recession. But that did not seem to have a massive impact on PEPs, the survey points out.
And finally, the magazine also carried a very festive story by Robert Breckman on the pros and cons of professional entertaining. The story talked about office parties and bemoaned not being able to delegate party planning to your wife as, apparently, men in 1990 would do at home...
In other news....
December 2 - Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice was top of the official singles chart
December 13 - First Poundland store opened in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire
December 25 - “The Godfather Part III” directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino, Diane Keaton and Andy Garcia premieres
December 29 – Leading economists warn that the recession creeping upon Britain will deepen during 1991 and that unemployment is likely to increase to well over 2,000,000 from the current total of over 1,700,000.
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