With Volvo Aerospace and, more recently, the venerable Fokker business in the Netherlands under its belt, GKN has shown the ability to carry out value-enhancing acquisitions even if this year is a bit of a trough for that side of the business. One analyst was setting an old hare racing yesterday — the demerger of the automotive and aerospace sides.
This looks implausible as, while aerospace has been relatively quiet of late, automotive has been moving ahead so the two should balance each other, and the position should reverse in the coming months as programmes such as the Airbus A320neo kick in. At present the drag is the military side, as orders for the Black Hawk attack helicopter, the
C-17 transport craft and the F-15