Daily Archives: February 19, 2018

Britain, Business, Defence, Government, National Security, Politics, United States

Defence Secretary to be quizzed by MPs over hostile bid for GKN

TAKEOVER BID OF GKN THREATENS NATIONAL SECURITY

GOVERNMENT ministers face a grilling in the House of Commons this week over the hostile £7.4billion takeover bid for engineering giant GKN.

Theresa May is under pressure to intervene amid mounting concern about the impact the buyout could have on industry and national security.

Redditch-based GKN makes parts for the F-35 Anglo-American fighter jet, the Eurofighter Typhoon and the US’s B-21 stealth bomber, as well as car parts such as driveshafts for the automotive industry.

Its future has been thrown into doubt after the City turnaround group Melrose lodged a £7.4billion offer last month. GKN’s board is attempting to fight the deal. Melrose is known for asset stripping which often leads to large numbers of people losing their jobs through restructuring.

It has emerged that the Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is set to be questioned about the bid when he appears this week before the defence select committee. Its chairman Julian Lewis said: “The committee have had correspondence strongly against and in favour of the hostile takeover bid and I therefore wouldn’t be surprised if the topic came up [during the committee hearing].”

There is growing concern across Whitehall about the impact this aggressive takeover of GKN would have, especially the long-term defence and security implications it may have for the UK.

The takeover already faces the prospect of wider investigations, with the business, energy and industrial strategy committee expected to scrutinise it further after initial questions were raised by chairman Rachel Reeves.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is understood to be monitoring the situation closely, and a senior civil servant has been appointed to examine the impact of a takeover.

The US’s own committee on foreign investment will also have to examine any takeover, as will the authorities in France and Germany.

GKN dates back nearly 260 years and made cannonballs for the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars.

It now has around 6,000 employees in the UK among 58,000 worldwide. It is a key supplier to aerospace firms including Airbus, with bases in towns including Redditch, Luton and Telford.

Melrose specialises in buying underperforming firms and selling them on at a profit within three to five years. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable has urged the Government to block the bid for GKN, calling Melrose an “utterly unsuitable owner”.

Speaking in the Commons earlier this month, the Prime Minister said: “Of course the Business Department will be looking closely at, and has been following closely, the issue. I and the Government as a whole will always act in the UK national interest.”

Concern about a GKN takeover has also been raised in the United States, where Congressman Neal Dunn has written to the committee on foreign investment urging it to block the bid.

He said: “In addition to concerns over who may ultimately acquire GKN, Melrose’s business strategy will undermine long-term investments in research and development and secure supply chains, which are critical to the major defence platforms GKN currently supplies.”

Any takeover would have to be considered by Germany’s federal ministry of economic affairs and energy and the French ministry of economy, according to documents made available by Melrose.

Melrose’s executive officers say that they “welcome any and all opportunities to explain to government why we [Melrose] believe a merger with GKN will create an industrial powerhouse of which the UK can be rightly proud”.

They added: “Melrose builds businesses to long-term health and prosperity and has an impeccable pension track record.”

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Medical, Research, Science

Inside Track: ‘Head rush’

MIND & BODY

THE CONNECTION between cardiovascular activity and mood is more than a feeling; it’s scientific fact. There is a growing body of evidence to show that exercise doesn’t just make you happier, it makes you smarter, enhancing your ability to solve problems, brainstorm ideas, and by thinking faster.

Exercise improves your cognitive functioning no matter what your age. Cognitive functioning refers to the mental processes – awareness, perception, reasoning, and judgement – by which knowledge is acquired. While earlier research efforts have focused on children and the elderly, study populations have broadened significantly in recent times, the results proving that everybody – as well as every brain – can benefit from regular exercise.

Many studies have been completed on the relationship between physical activity and mental performance and have found that most had a shared conclusion. One such finding is that the short-term effects of a bout of exercise can lead to a greater focus and for individuals to make fewer errors in decision making. Several of the studies also found that during and/or following a bout of vigorous exercise (typically, running or cycling for 20 minutes to an hour), individual performances on tests measuring ‘executive control’ (the processes involved in achieving goals in a changing environment) improved significantly when compared with pre-exercise scores.

The use of exercise to spark creativity is hardly a novel idea. Among today’s creative exercisers, the award-winning writer Joyce Carol Oates says she avoids rest days because her craft depends on running: ‘There isn’t any piece of my writing that didn’t evolve through running,’ says Oates, who runs daily on the country roads near her home.

It’s not just literary types who see the benefit. The chief operating officer of a global junk-removal business based in Vancouver, for instance, knows his miles are anything but junk. The executive says that when out running a mental zone is soon found within that allows many of life’s problems to be solved. The business chief has a whole office of fitness diehards – and, keeps an eye out for similar types who may wish to join the firm in the future. ‘We look to hire athletes,” says the director, who finds fit people more focused and engaged.

Investigators elsewhere would also tend to agree. Previous tests carried out at the University of Ulm, in Germany, for example, asked a group of subjects to run 30 minutes twice a week for six weeks. Another group remained sedentary for the same time period. Following each session (or non-session), participants were examined to measure concentration. The runners scored higher, but it didn’t end there. The lead researcher concluded: ‘Twelve weeks after they stopped running, we could still see some effects.’

Scientists now know that the body’s dopamine and epinephrine levels are responsible for this effect. These neuro-transmitters, which enhance communication between key areas of the brain, climb during physical activity. The effects are fleeting, however, peaking about 20 minutes into exercise and petering out shortly after its conclusion, but other neurochemicals may take over where those leave off, responsible for the longer-term effects reported by researchers.

One of the next areas of intense study and research will be the exact prescription. Many agree that we need dose-response studies to see just how much exercise will produce the best cognitive results.

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