ABOUT 300,000 investors around the world are being targeted for a class action against the Halifax because the bank, which converted last year, did not grant them shares.

Exactly a year ago Halifax became a bank, granting shares to its 7.6m members. The average person got 350 shares, worth just under £3,000 at yesterday's price.

But the bank refused to give shares to a number - estimated to be 300,000 - of its members who lived in all but a few countries overseas. It said that it could not give shares to many of these members because of local regulations or the expense and limited shares to 26 territories. Countries excluded included the United States and Canada.

However, Brian Hazlehurst, a British expatriate living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the past 20 years, is fighting the Halifax's decision to exclude him and other overseas Halifax members from the share-out via an online campaign. He is appealing for expat Halifax savers to pay £50 towards a group action against the Halifax share distribution.

Mr Hazlehurst, who runs the UNHAV group - United Halifax Victims - said: "I am hoping that we will be able to bring a case to court by about the end of June. I have had 600 people contact me, coming from places as far away as Mongolia and Papua New Guinea. I personally have lost out on about £10,000 worth of shares but I have spent more than that already on this campaign."

A spokesman for the Halifax said: "We gave shares to people in more countries than any other converting building society. We will wait to see whatever action is taken rather than talking about it before it happens."

News updates - UNHAV http://www.rain.org/~jmhmps/unhav.html