About 90,000 Irish members of Edinburgh-based insurer Standard Life will receive proposal documents and voting forms at the end of next month for the company's planned demutualisation.

Standard Life, which is expected to list its shares in London in July, is thought to be valued at £4-£6 billion (€5.8-€8.6 billion), which would make it one of the UK's biggest flotations in recent years.

To proceed with the flotation, it needs 75 per cent of its 2.4 million eligible members to vote in favour of demutualisation before or at its annual general meeting in Edinburgh on May 31st.

Standard Life members who are in line for a windfall will be told how many shares they have been allocated and how much they are likely to be worth in a proposal pack that will be sent to them at the end of April.

Standard Life plans to publish the proposal document and its accounts on its website on April 18th.

The average windfall is expected to be £500-£1,000.

The insurance company has a total of 120,000 customers in the Republic. However, up to 30,000 hold mortgage protection or small savings products and will not be eligible for any windfall.

Holders of Special Savings Incentive Accounts (SSIAs) at the life assurer do qualify as their contributions are invested in its with-profits funds - a type of investment product where the returns are smoothed over the term of the policy.

All members who are eligible for a windfall will receive a fixed allocation of shares. Some members will also receive additional shares, depending on the type of policy they held as of March 2004, the size of the investment and the length of time they have held it.

To qualify, the investment must be in Standard Life's with-profits funds and must have been taken out before March 30th, 2004.

In a mutual company, with-profits investors bear the overall business risks of the group.

Standard Life has repeatedly cut the maturity payouts on its with-profits pension and endowment policies in recent years and was forced by the UK Financial Services Authority to remove a so-called mutuality bonus from its with-profits projections.

Standard Life chairman Sir Brian Stewart said demutualisation would reduce the exposure of with-profits investors to the group's business risks.

Demutualisation would also give the firm access to external equity capital to help develop its business. - (Additional reporting Reuters)