MTL redundancies exploit synergies with Cooper

ControlGlobal.com
02/13/2009

By Andrew Bond, Industrial Automation Insider

It’s almost exactly 12 months since the announcement of Cooper Industries’ agreed £140m bid for MTL, which was accompanied by assurances from MTL’s then CEO, Graeme Philp, that the deal “allows us to remain intact with no change in our management or organizational structure.” Philp has since departed to take up a vice presidential role elsewhere within Cooper and has been replaced by Peter Maxwell as managing director. Earlier this month, Maxwell replied to an enquiry from INSIDER relating to rumors circulating in the industry, that “I can confirm that we have made a number of redundancies to streamline the business, capitalizing on synergies that exist between MTL and Cooper.” Nor did he deny the suggestion that the redundancies had included some quite senior figures up to and including director level. Ironically, we concluded our report of the acceptance of the Cooper offer for MTL with the observation that “… MTL folk … will be looking for evidence that the assurances of little or no change or rationalization … are more than the usual palliatives which traditionally precede post merger and acquisition implementation.”