Category Archives: Britain

Britain, Russia, Syria, United States

UN Secretary-General pleads for Syrian ceasefire

SYRIA

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY children are feared to have been killed in bloody Syrian air attacks on a rebel-held enclave near Damascus.

Bashar al-Assad’s warplanes pounded the eastern Ghouta district earlier this week for five consecutive days, turning it into a “hell on earth” according to UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres.

As the UN pleaded for a ceasefire to prevent a “massacre”, monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 368 people, including 150 children, had been killed since last Sunday night.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd, visiting neighbouring Lebanon, said Britain was considering extending its commitment to resettle 20,000 vulnerable refugees from the brutal Syrian civil war.

Concern is growing that Russia has deployed a new stealth fighter to Syrian for weapons testing. Footage appeared to show two Su-57 fifth-generation jets landing at Russia’s Khmeimim air base in the country. The killing machine – which is yet to be tested in combat – is difficult to track on enemy radars – and is capable of autonomously assessing battlefield situations before striking targets with its deadly weaponry.

Map of Damascus locating the besieged rebel enclave in Eastern Ghouta.

 

The deployment of the aircraft would represent the latest the high-tech military system Russia has exhibited in Syria. The Kremlin has been accused of using the war-ravaged nation as a weapons-testing playground.

A Royal Navy warship has, once again, been forced to escort three Russian warships as they travelled through the English Channel on their way back from the region.

Russian spy ship Feodor Golovin, landing ship Alexander Ostrakovskiy and tanker Yelnya had been supporting Russian military operations in Syria.

The deployment of Portsmouth-based HMS Mersey and a Wildcat helicopter from RNAS Yeovilton is the third time in two months that the Royal Navy has been scrambled to keep a watch on Russian vessels passing the UK.

In Lebanon Miss Rudd said 10,538 people from the Syrian war zone have already been granted refuge under a government scheme and the UK would reach its target of bringing in 20,000 by 2020.

The Home Secretary said she was already holding talks about what would follow when the target was met. She failed to rule out the option of bringing in more refugees, although other ways of helping – such as providing support in the region – could also be likely.

The Home Secretary said: “I am consulting with stakeholders and engaging with other departments to decide what we should have to replace that after 2020. I am going to make sure we have something post-2020 but I’m not sure yet what shape it is.”

World leaders have ramped up the pressure for an urgent ceasefire in Syria.

The UN Security Council was expected to vote on a resolution, called for by Sweden and Kuwait, ordering a ceasefire to allow relief agencies to deliver vital aid and evacuating the sick and wounded from besieged areas.

A spokesperson for Syrian Civil Defence, a search-and-rescue group, said eastern Ghouta was being targeted for “extermination”, adding: “This is a war against civilians. The civil defence is being targeted as they rescue women and children.”

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Britain, Business, Defence, Government, National Security

The GKN bid and threat to national security?

MELROSE

THE hostile takeover of the defence giant GKN is to be investigated by MPs amid concern that it could harm national security.

In a rare intervention in a corporate takeover, senior executives from GKN and the predatory bidder Melrose are being called before the business committee.

MPs want answers about the risk to jobs, pensions and the manufacture of key military components if the £7.4billion deal goes ahead.

It came as Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson expressed “serious concerns” about the proposed takeover.

Giving evidence to the defence select committee, Mr Williamson said he had written to Business Secretary Greg Clark about the deal, adding: “There is no clarity as to what the true approach is going to be in terms of the GKN military side of the business.

“We sometimes have to ask tough questions as to whether we should raise concerns about the break-up of large successful important businesses that have a real impact upon our national security. It would have been remiss if I didn’t do that on this occasion.”

Turnaround specialist Melrose’s bid for GKN, which employs 6,000 people in the UK and 58,000 worldwide, is facing close-scrutiny amid concerns over its potential impact.

Redditch-based GKN, which is nearly 260 years old, makes parts for fighter jets including the US-UK F-35, the Eurofighter Typhoon, and the US B-21 stealth bomber. It also produces components for aircraft and car firms including Airbus, Mercedes and Toyota.

The Government is investigating whether it could intervene on national security grounds. The business committee is to hold a hearing into the takeover on March 6.

Committee chairman Rachel Reeves said: “GKN is an important company for the UK and globally. This session will be an opportunity to hear from Unite [the union] and for GKN and Melrose to set out their case for the future of the business.”

GKN’s fate was thrown into doubt last month when Melrose tabled its offer to buy the firm, which was rejected by board members as cheap and opportunistic.

Melrose’s strategy is to sell firms on it has acquired at a profit within three to five years, raising fears that GKN will be broken up piecemeal and sold off around the world.

Melrose suffered a £28million loss last year and has presided over factory closures and hundreds of job cuts.

The firm has said it welcomes the opportunity to appear before the select committee. It also said that while it believes there are no competition or national security issues, it asserts that it will be in the national interest for Melrose to be the guardian of GKN businesses. As a British public company, it says it is fully aware of its ownership responsibilities.

GKN said it was happy to give evidence to the committee.

 

AS MPs launch an inquiry into the hostile bid for Britain’s oldest engineering company, it is a relief that Westminster has at last woken up to this grave threat to our national interest.

Anyone who believes the get-rich-quick asset strippers at Melrose are fit to take over GKN should look closely what happened to FKI, another company that fell into their clutches ten years ago.

After selling off most of the firm’s assets for a huge profit, Melrose kept control of gas turbine manufacturer Brush – which has performed weakly ever since, with the threat of job losses now hanging over it.

Earlier this week, Melrose reported a loss of £28million after writing-off £145million from Brush’s value. Can such City takeover firms, relying on loans for their acquisitions, really be trusted to takeover GKN?

For 260 years, this flagship engineering firm has been vital to our defence, making cannonballs for Waterloo and Spitfires for the Battle of Britain. To this day, it remains a world-beater in the sort of technologies we will need after Brexit, whether building parts for stealth aircraft or driveshafts for new electric cars.

True, GKN needs to improve its efficiency. But it would be madness to let it be broken up and sold to the highest bidders at home and abroad.

As leading industrialist and Government adviser Sir Richard Lapthorne puts it: “The hollowing out of Britain’s industrial base has gone too far. The Germans and French would not even dream of allowing this.”

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Britain, Business, Defence, Government

Acquisition firm seeking to takeover GKN made £28m loss in 2017

MELROSE

THE PREDATORY firm plotting to snap up British defence giant GKN suffered a £28million loss last year.

Financial results for turnaround company Melrose also showed it has presided over factory closures and hundreds of job cuts.

Its annual loss for 2017 was fuelled by problems with power generation firm Brush, which it took over and acquired a decade earlier.

The loss-making figures will add to questions about Melrose’s suitability to own GKN, a key supplier to defence and aerospace industries with more than £9billion in sales.

Melrose has made a £7.4billion offer for GKN, which has some 58,000 employees worldwide including 6,000 in the UK, and makes key parts for fighter jets, airplanes and motor vehicles.

But the bid has been rejected by the board of GKN as being “cheap and opportunistic”, triggering the biggest hostile takeover battle in a decade and calls for the UK Government to intervene.

Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary for the business department, has been quizzed about the bid by the Commons business committee.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson is also under pressure in answering questions from the defence committee. GKN has significant stakes in military projects and supply chains.

Melrose insists it remains well-placed to push ahead with its offer. Chairman Christopher Miller said: “Substantial long-term value is being created with significant investment in new technology, new products and operations.” The financial woes at Melrose stem from a takeover of engineering group FKI in 2008, which included buying Brush.

Melrose has also disclosed that it was writing-off £144.7million in value from this division, including £31.1million on the closure of its factory in Changshu, China. Melrose said Brush’s generator sales fell 43 per cent last year.

The results revealed that up to 270 jobs are at risk at Brush’s production factory in Loughborough. It is also closing its facility in Ridderderk, Netherlands, and shifting work to the Czech Republic.

Elsewhere, Melrose closed loss-making operations in the heating and ventilation division of Nortek, the US manufacturer it bought in 2016.

A spokesperson for Melrose said: “Brush remains a fine business which we are happy to support … The real number investors will focus on is the dramatic increase in underlying profits and the near doubling of the dividend, which reflects our confidence in the progress being made at Nortek.”

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