To very little fanfare, London’s stock market on Thursday gained a £1.6bn engineering company that supplies 90% of the world’s vehicle manufacturers and is top dog in the specialised field of drive systems.
The lack of buzz was perhaps understandable. The company’s name – Dowlais – may be new, but the business itself is merely a demerger from FTSE 100 firm Melrose Industries. Its main operation is GKN Automotive, one half of the GKN engineering empire that fell to Melrose in an acrimonious £8bn takeover battle in 2018.
