Melrose has won the battle to take control of GKN although the Government might yet step in to halt the takeover. On what grounds is not exactly clear. Never having held shares in either company, I thought it worth looking at the facts rather than the hyperbole surrounding this deal as there seemed to be some myths being propagated.
Is GKN a key business in the UK’s engineering and technology infrastructure based on a long history of innovation? Or is it a financially poorly performing conglomerate that was vulnerable to a bid?
It has been said that GKN produced Spitfires in the Second World War but in reality they did not develop the plane but were just one of several assembly plants that were subcontracted to produce it in volume, In the 1960s I well remember the company under the name Guest, Keen and Nettlefold and in Birmingham they had large factories producing nuts and bolts. Hardly high-tech engineering even at that time. Later they did make a success of car parts production particularly with constant velocity joints (CVJs) as used in the Mini and other front wheel drive vehicles. But they are now proposing to split off the driveline business and merge it with another company. They plan to focus on the aerospace business. You can see a “polished” version of the history of the company here: https://www.gkn.com/en/about-gkn/history/ . In reality a long history of dubious diversifications, followed by later rationalisations.
The recent financial performance has been disappointing. Reported earnings per share in 2017 were the same as five years previously with a trough in between. Dividends in that period grew slowly and at the current share price equate to about 2% yield. Return on assets a measly 5.6% last year, and even that was an improvement on previous years. Although the financial prospects based on analysts’ forecasts might be slightly improving, is it not simply a case that institutional investors might have become disillusioned with the management in recent years and seen an opportunity in the Melrose bid to improve the financial returns?
There will no doubt have been some activity by share traders, arbitrageurs and hedge funds of late who might have influenced the outcome. But that’s capitalism in action. Holders, even long-term ones, sell to higher bidders.
Personally I oppose any suggestion that short-term holders should not be allowed to vote, and the use of other “poison-pill” mechanisms that can defeat takeovers. If I purchased a share in a company last week, I want to be able to vote it! I may not have known that a bid was coming and how I vote will depend on the arguments put by both sides. Clearly in this case GKN simply lost the argument.
Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson )
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