Building societies use them in the way public limited companies use preference shares.

It will mark the first time that a foreign company has offered dollar-denominated preference shares to the American public.

He also called into question the treatment of preference shares in the company accounts.

The new venture was financed by the issue of 40,000 preference shares at £1 each.

To pay estate duties, the public were offered some preference shares.

Using their presence and 'high net worth', a further £4m of 8% convertible preference shares were sold to the institutions.

From June 1988 (see next section), the company began to use redeemable preference shares to raise capital.

At the same time, the company issues 50 preference shares with a par value of $0.5.

The investment was worth £500,000 and was made in the form of preference shares.

The auditors also took issue with the accounting treatment of the preference shares.