New opportunities for P-OE with parent company expansion

Keywords: Mergers, Growth, Business

Precision-Optical Engineering's (P-OE) parent company, Matra BAe Dynamics UK Ltd, has come together with other European companies to form a much larger organisation to serve the needs of the European missile market. The new company is to be known as MBDA, and incorporates Aerospatiale Matra Missiles and the missiles business of Alenia Marconi Systems.

The three shareholders of MBDA are BAE Systems, EADS and Finmeccanica. Three national operating companies will be set up to combine their assets in the UK,France and Italy. MBDA's CEO, Fabrice Bregier, commented: "One of our special attributes is our ability to work together on major projects at a European level in particular and to control developments on the basis of cooperation." The new company will employ some 12,000 people with annual sales of US$ 1.5-2.5 billion.