- Trafalgar House (company)
Trafalgar House was a
United Kingdom conglomerate with interests inproperty , property development,construction , passengershipping andengineering . It was founded by Sir Nigel Broackes andLord Matthews of Southgate (d.14 December 1995 ). In1983 it bought 50% of theHong Kong companyGammon Construction fromJardine Matheson . Gammon Construction then become the preferred contractor in theAsia-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 inLondon . This was sold in 1995 toDavid and Frederick Barclay for £75 million.Property development
In
1988 Trafalgar House was involved in a joint development withBritish Aerospace (BAe) to redevelop the formerRoyal Small Arms Factory site at Enfield.In
1995 it bought the bomb-damaged site of the historicBaltic Exchange building, at30 St Mary Axe , which had been severely damaged when theIrish Republican Army detonated a bomb nearby on10 April 1992 . The building's former owner, the Baltic Exchange, was unable to bear the costs of fully restoring the building toEnglish Heritage 's requirements and therefore it sold the building and the land to Trafalgar House. In1998 they sold the site, withplanning permission , for 81 million pounds toSwiss Re . It is now occupied by the Gherkin, designed byFoster and Partners , (see30 St Mary Axe ).hipping
In
1971 Trafalgar House acquired theCunard 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 byKvaerner , the Trafalgar House Construction Division became Kvaerner Construction. In 2000, Kvaerner sold its Construction Division to Swedish construction companySkanska who formed a new Business UnitSkanska UK.Engineering
In
1986 Trafalgar House acquired John Brown Engineering Ltd which built industrialgas turbine s 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 shipbuilderJohn Brown & Company ofClydebank . [ [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 in1996 for £904 million and Kvaerner moved its ownheadquarters fromOslo toLondon . [ [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
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