United Scientific Holdings
of London. Supplier of optical, scientific and electronic equipment, mainly to overseas governments and military forces[1]
1965 Rights and Issues Investment Trust acquired 10 percent of the shares and, amongst other things, stimulated the company to assemble a catalogue of all of the equipment that it supplied; the principal subsidiary was United Scientific Instruments; most of its products were made to order by outside manufacturers.
1968 Public issue of shares.
1970 Acquired Helio Mirror, maker of periscopes[2]
1972 Sold United Beller Ltd[4]
1977 Acquired a major share of the equity of Optic Electronic Corporation of Dallas which also had a leading role in supplying military range-finders[5]
1980 Acquired US defence equipment company Ni-Tec[6]
1981 Acquired Alvis from the denationalization of BL[7] which more or less doubled the size of the company.
1989 Announced loss due to problems at Avimo[8]. Meggitt launched a bid for the company but, after winning acceptances from a majority of shareholders, walked away from the deal[9], after new financial information was released. Acquired Self Changing Gears from Cummins[10]
1992 Changed name to Alvis plc[11]. The electro-optic businesses were transferred to the Avimo Singapore subsidiary.
See Also
Sources of Information
- The Times Mar 08, 1969