9th May 2019 08:51
LONDON (Alliance News) - Melrose Industries PLC on Thursday announced the retirement of Vice Chair David Roper and said that it continues to make good progress in delivering operational improvements and particularly margin targets for recent engineering acquisition GKN.
Shares in Melrose were trading 1.8% lower at 185.70 pence each.
The industrial business turnaround specialist, ahead of its annual general meeting, also said that trading in the first four months of the year has been in line with board's expectations
Roper, one of the co-founder of the company, will step down and to retire on May 31, 2020. He was the chief executive of the company from its 2003 stock market float to 2012.
"We have recently laid out our targets for GKN which are better than those we indicated only one year ago at the time of the acquisition, and which come on the back of a stronger performance than expected in the first year of ownership. We are delighted to keep investing in all our businesses, including Nortek and Brush, and look forward to another year of progress," said Chair Justin Dowley.
The company, during its Capital Markets Day event in April, said it is targeting a 12% operating margin for GKN's aerospace division, 10% for automotive unit and 14% for powder metallurgy division. The margins targets equate to a blended GKN operating margin of over 11%,
higher than the 'over 10%' announced during the hostile takeover of former FTSE 100 constituent GKN.
Melrose is scheduled to issue its interim results on September 5.
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