GEC reborn as Marconi name is approved
By Alessandra Galloni
LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters) - A new British high-tech systems group, Marconi Plc, was christened on Wednesday, just shy of a century after Guglielmo Marconi's first wireless message travelled across the Atlantic.
The renaming of General Electric Co Plc (GEC) after the Anglo-Italian inventor of the radio marked the end of an era in British engineering history and the start of a new chapter for one of the country's leading companies.
GEC's new name was overwhelmingly approved at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders, which also gave the green light to GEC's planned sale of its Marconi defence unit to British Aerospace Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BA.L).
After completion of the BAe deal, expected by November 29, Marconi will focus on communications and technology systems, in a sweeping redefinition of the group founded in 1886 as a London electrical wholesaler.
Marconi will be reclassified on the London Stock Exchange as an information technology stock -- a move expected to give the company a higher rating -- and plans to list on the technology-laden Nasdaq market in New York by the first half of next year.
MORE CHANGES TO COME
The group is set to undergo more changes. After disposing of defence, it is expected to sell off other units that do not fit its new mould, including consumer appliances, industrial fans and weighing equipment.
It is also reportedly considering selling its 24 percent stake in the French-based heavy engineering group Alstom SA .
Marconi Plc's ancestry dates back to wireless pioneer Guglielmo Marconi, who came to London from Bologna, Italy in 1896 to patent his ``black box' through which he had communicated via wireless transmission.
The following year, Marconi set up a company in Chelmsford, east of London, and succeeded in sending the first wireless message -- ``Let it be so' in Morse code -- across the Bristol Channel.
Communication between Cornwall in southwest England and Newfoundland in eastern Canada was established in 1901, a year after GEC went public.
Marconi's company later became part of English Electric, which merged into GEC in 1986, creating Britain's biggest electronics and appliance company.
The sale of Marconi Electronic Systems to BAe is expected to give GEC shareholders 0.42 new BAe shares for every GEC share held. In addition, BAe is also paying GEC shareholders 440 million pounds in a loan stock issue.
BAe's acquisition of Marconi Electronic Systems -- which will bring the group some 275 million pounds in cost savings by 2002 -- is a crucial part of its plans to create an aerospace and defence company capable of competing with stronger rivals in the United States.
The deal has secured British regulatory approval subject to a number of conditions, but still needs U.S. anti-trust clearance and BAe has said this might delay its plans for completion by the end of November.
However, Chairman Roger Hurn expressed confidence that U.S. approval would be forthcoming for the deal which had been worth 7.4 billion pound ($12.20 billion) when first announced.
``I have every reason to believe BAe will get (U.S.) approval within the timetable presented....by the end of the month,' said Hurn.
($1 equals .6066 Pound) |
