Takeover Of Matrix-Churchill Ltd

EDM number 40 in 1990-91, proposed by Harry Barnes on 08/11/1990.

That this House views with serious concern the recent announcement of the takeover by Automation Investments Limited, the holding company for BSA Tools Ltd., of the Coventry-based machine tool company, Matrix-Churchill, due to BSA Tools' past association with MEED International, an Iraqi military arms procurement agency set up by Austrian resident Mr Anees Mansour Wadi, whose attempts to export 40 nuclear capacitors were prevented when the triggers were seized at Heathrow Airport; recognises that the purchase is a means to by-pass the Bank of England controls, and considers the circumstances of the purchase warrant a public investigation; supports, instead, a government buy-out of the Matrix-Churchill shares owned by Iraqi nominees; calls for measures to safeguard the 1,000 jobs of both Matrix workers and those dependant on the survival of the company; and welcomes the help of the West Midlands Enterprise Board in its undertaking to assist the workforce in exploring the feasibility of a legitimate management buy-out.

This motion has been signed by a total of 16 MPs.