Melrose Industries Share Discussion Threads

[brexitplus] 15/2/2018 10:40

Hi Meanwhile.

Pontypridd. Isn’t that somewhere in the Welsh outback? Does it have a university? Personally I graduated from a real engineering university called Loughborough. And having worked for a number of old engineering firms that failed to move with the times and eventually failed I decided there was more to life than working for backward thinking ““minerves.” Can you imagine working for him? The foul language, the I’m always right attitude, shall I go on. Not for me.

[meanwhile] 15/2/2018 10:40

Spot on , Minavera,

I have an IQ of 64, I work, intermittently, as a drain cover lifter, using a spanner, and I read the Daily Express, Mirror & Sun at break times.

I failed to gain entry to Pontypridd Polytechnic so ended up at London University.

I've also made £250K from investing in MRO, resulting from them doing exactly what they're going to do to GKN.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 10:30

MEANWHILE

I mean this sincerely, you know nothing of what you talk about. Your engineering prowess is most likely semi-skilled. Your IQ -- no offence -- isn't up to that much. Do you read tabloids like The Express may I ask?

[minerve] 15/2/2018 10:22

Semper Vigilans 15 Feb '18 - 10:14 - 2071 of 2071

"If GKN had been doing really well Melrose wouldn’t have bothered."

Give me the definition of "well". Are we running a company on its balance sheet and profit and loss alone or are we running it for all stakeholders?

All because some sharp financial outfit with no relevant board experience believes it can improve financial yardsticks doesn't automatically mean it is either appropriate or achievable.

You could run your house more financially profitable by getting rid of your children's iPads and the TV set but do you? No. Why?

If you put too much emphasis on squeezing out every drop of margin you start to increase operational risks which potentially damage long-term shareholder value.

OK, if we accept that GKN could be more efficient then who better to make the change than those with experience. Why should we not trust the new board? Do we think they are liars? No, of course we don't. She has the track record at Ford.

[meanwhile] 15/2/2018 10:17

Well, Minivera's lost it completely now, bombarding both sites, MRO & GKN, with GKN rubbish.

It's sad to see, and I mean this very sincerely. I worked for many years, on various projects in manufacturing industry, with an engineer who suffered in a very similar way. We then called it 'Spannerman Syndrome', a belief that you would have made the achievements of Brunel or Stephenson if only the laboratory people had supported you from below and the finance people had given you the proper cash.
He was a trained engineer (Pontypridd Polytechnic, I believe) but somewhere along
the road had gone astray. A great pity; I think he ended his days in a lunatic asylum, or whatever they call these places today.

So sad.

[semper vigilans] 15/2/2018 10:14

If GKN had been doing really well Melrose wouldn’t have bothered.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 10:08

"Hi semper, the Melrose model is based on removing the “fat” layers of management and allowing the people who know their part of the business run it."

How do you know they are "fat" and so irrelevant? You don't, you can only assume. Are you just taking somebody else's word or do you actually have any experience at all in running of an engineering business or any business at all for that matter?

Your are obviously just a Melrose shareholder who wants to make a little bit of extra money to buy your iPhone this year.

[brexitplus] 15/2/2018 10:00

Hi semper, the Melrose model is based on removing the “fat” layers of management and allowing the people who know their part of the business run it. This means the board would go. Generally the workforce remains the same. I know some will bring up Brush but the part that has has redundancies has undergone a large drop in demand for its generators since the acquisition of FKI.

The market is obviously supporting Melrose which is driving up both the Melrose and GKN share price if it was supporting GKN the Melrose share price would be dropping.

In a way GKN is playing into Melrose’s hand by separating aero and auto operationally today as it provides Melrose with THREE much smaller businesses, the size of Nortek, to work with.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:46

Semper Vigilans

"Investing the cash back into the business would help employees."

Melrose will add about £1.6bn of debt onto the balance sheet. They will reward themselves £285m bonus. That to me does not sound like you are investing money back into the business as you immediately have an additional £1.885bn liability before you even start!

Please tell me where they will find other jobs? You are living in cloud cuckoo land. Sure get a delivery job in our wonderful gig economy.

Industry is not generally investing in growth at the moment. We have the Brexit circus to contend with as voted by our resident clowns.

[semper vigilans] 15/2/2018 09:38

Investing the cash back into the business would help employees.
If the employees are treated poorly, then the whole entity suffers whoever is in charge.
Those at the top who might be displaced will find employment elsewhere commensurate with their abilities.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:38

Seems to me Melrose shareholders are getting more emotional as the exposure of their offer is indeed a poor one.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:37

"failed CEO"

Please explain that one. She did an excellent job at Ford and knows how to run a larger company with long-term objectives than Melrose.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:35

Yertiz 15 Feb '18 - 09:02 - 2055 of 2062

"Emotions getting in the way of sound business sense?"

We will never know.

It is easy to reduce a layer of management and promote youth and in doing so you improve the financials short-term at the expense of an intangible such as knowledge and experience. How much is that knowledge and experience worth? Not easy to put on a balance sheet.

You only find out the cost years and years later when you have to recruit experience or when you are competing against competitors with more experience. Quality of product here is paramount. This is not a mobile phone retail shop.

[brexitplus] 15/2/2018 09:30

Yertiz. Very true. This is just an emotional plea. Nothing on pensions, just jam tomorrow with a failed CEO. Very poor. Anyone who falls for this !!!

By the way, is poor old minerve still ranting. I filtered him as I can’t stand the appalling language. I hope he had a great Valentine’s Day with Mrs minerve.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:30

Semper Vigilans 15 Feb '18 - 09:05 - 2056 of 2061

"Hopefully with no ridiculous payoffs."

I would hope that if GKN or Melrose decide to remove some employees and disrupt their lives and their family's lives that they would have the decency to make sure they are funded reasonably well as respect for their contribution during employment.

I would like to ask what makes you deserve more of a chunk of the company's finances rather than an employee? He is more comitted that you are and you are just sat their with you self-serving attitude collecting a dividend!

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:26

"if Melrose acquires GKN, it would have to generate 1.76x the level of improvement that GKN would have to deliver in order to give you, as a shareholder, the same future benefit."

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:25

➡️ 145;️➡️➡A039;➡️➡️ 145;️➡️➡A039; "81p per share in cash that Melrose is offering you, 77p is effectively funded by GKN's own balance sheet" ⬅️013;️⬅️⬅A039;⬅️⬅️013;️⬅️⬅A039;

Think about that GKN shareholders.

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:22

"Finally, your Board believes that Melrose is more focused on financial engineering than real engineering, that its management team focuses on accounting margin and that its capitalisation of research and development and heavy use of provisioning confuse understanding of its profitability."

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:21

"Finally, your Board believes that Melrose is more focused on financial engineering than real engineering, that its management team focuses on accounting margin and that its capitalisation of research and development and heavy use of provisioning confuse understanding of its profitability."

Yep, very true!

Try telling that to the half-witted, greedy little morons though! ;)

[minerve] 15/2/2018 09:19

"81p per share in cash that Melrose is offering you, 77p is effectively funded by GKN's own balance sheet"

This really looks a great offer! LOL

If you are a GKN shareholder, you are practically buying yourselves!

Don't be fooled by this poor offer.

[semper vigilans] 15/2/2018 09:05

Hopefully with no ridiculous payoffs.

[yertiz] 15/2/2018 09:02

Face saving exercise - or job retention plea? - either which way, if the management in GKN aren't up to the task and Melrose do finally complete the deal with minimum hostility and at Melrose prices, then there'll be a few more added to the unemployment figures. Emotions getting in the way of sound business sense?

[brexitplus] 15/2/2018 07:45

gKN Chairman’s letter this morning. I was expecting much more than this.

Chairman’s letter is more emotional than fact. Basically “please don’t let those nasty people at Melrose take over GKN.”

Jam tomorrow.

Where is the positivity?

No mention of pensions, since it obviously isn’t really an issue.

Ann Stevens - 20 years experience, which includes being CEO of Carpenter which she walked away from when the going got tough, and no other CEO role for 10 years.

Reads more like a surrender!!!

[yertiz] 15/2/2018 07:28

Proper Cornish!

[mattboxy] 14/2/2018 22:00

Yertiz R u by any chance from the West Country??