When GKN’s shareholders gave their approval to last year’s hostile bid by Melrose Industries, they were effectively endorsing the skills of the management team at the industrial turnaround business.
The more rigorous and aggressive approach that Melrose would adopt would improve performance at a car and aerospace group that had been underperforming for years far faster than the incumbent executives, according to the argument.
Last week Melrose published complex annual results, not just for GKN but for all its businesses, which include Nortek, an American ventilation group, and Brush, a power generation specialist. What do they tell us? In short, there were plenty of positives.
Melrose, listed on the junior Aim market in 2003 as a buyer and improver of underperforming industrial businesses, struck