Trafalgar House (company)

Trafalgar House was a United Kingdom conglomerate with interests in property, property development, construction, passenger shipping and engineering. It was founded by Sir Nigel Broackes and Lord Matthews of Southgate (d. 14 December 1995). In 1983 it bought 50% of the Hong Kong company Gammon Construction from Jardine Matheson. Gammon Construction then become the preferred contractor in the Asia-Pacific region for both Trafalgar House and Jardine Mattheson.

Anthony G Evans was President of Trafalgar House Real Estate, Inc., the U.S. commercial real estate development subsidiary of Trafalgar House Plc from 1985 - 1990.

Property

Trafalgar House previously owned the Ritz Hotel in London. This was sold in 1995 to David and Frederick Barclay for £75 million.

Property development

In 1988 Trafalgar House was involved in a joint development with British Aerospace (BAe) to redevelop the former Royal Small Arms Factory site at Enfield.

In 1995 it bought the bomb-damaged site of the historic Baltic Exchange building, at 30 St Mary Axe, which had been severely damaged when the Irish Republican Army detonated a bomb nearby on 10 April 1992. The building's former owner, the Baltic Exchange, was unable to bear the costs of fully restoring the building to English Heritage's requirements and therefore it sold the building and the land to Trafalgar House. In 1998 they sold the site, with planning permission, for 81 million pounds to Swiss Re. It is now occupied by the Gherkin, designed by Foster and Partners, (see 30 St Mary Axe).

hipping

In 1971 Trafalgar House acquired the Cunard Line. Under Trafalgar House, Cunard operated both freight and passenger ships, and made several major cargo line acquisitions. Trafalgar abruptly pulled Cunard out of the cargo shipping industry in 1989, and sold off all of Cunard's freighters.

Construction

In 1968 Trafalgar House acquired Trollope & Colls, a well-established British construction company. The Construction Division undertook a number of prestigious projects in the UK including The Dartford River Crossing (Queen Elizabeth II Bridge). In 1996, when Trafalgar House was taken over by Kvaerner, the Trafalgar House Construction Division became Kvaerner Construction. In 2000, Kvaerner sold its Construction Division to Swedish construction company Skanska who formed a new Business Unit Skanska UK.

Engineering

In 1986 Trafalgar House acquired John Brown Engineering Ltd which built industrial gas turbines and also licensed processes, such as the Union Carbide Corporation Polyethylene Plant. The basic processes were engineered to fit the purchaser's requirements, including the site plan, the production capacity, the raw material fedstocks, and other constraints. John Brown Engineering was the engineering division of the famous shipbuilder John Brown & Company of Clydebank. [ [http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/97/John-Brown-Plc.html John Brown plc] ]

In 1992 Trafalgar House acquired Davy McKee (formerly known as "Davy Corporation"), [ [http://www.davyprotech.com/default.aspx?cid=279 Davy Process Technology] ] another multi-national engineering business. [ [http://ech.case.edu/ech-cgi/article.pl?id=DMC Cleveland History] ]

Break up

Trafalgar House was taken over by the Norwegian company Kvaerner in 1996 for £904 million and Kvaerner moved its own headquarters from Oslo to London. [ [http://www.iht.com/articles/1996/02/28/traf.t.php Kvaerner Is Close to Bidding for Troubled Group: Lifeline for Trafalgar House?] ] The name "Trafalgar House" was dropped; however the John Brown Engineering subsidiary was renamed Kvaerner John Brown.

References