Abstract
In November 1983 European Ferries, with 1982 sales of £293 million spread across shipping, harbour operations, banking and property, announced that it intended to sell its merchant banking subsidiary Singer Friedlander which it had acquired three years previously. European Ferries’ expressed opinion was that Singer & Friedlander had ‘strong profit growth and excellent prospects’, but that following the appointment of a new managing director the company ‘had been reviewing its strategy and concluded that it should concentrate on the shipping, harbour and property sectors’.1
All the evidence points to divestment continuing to be an important tactical option for firms in a competitive world. — R. Cohen and S. Slatter, ‘How to Divest’, Management Today, May 1983, p. 136.
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References
See Financial Times, 12 November 1983.
See J. Coyne and M. Wright, ‘Buy Outs and British Industry’, Lloyds Bank Review, October 1982, pp. 15–31.
See Sunday Times, 16 October 1983.
See R. H. Hayes, ‘New Emphasis on Divestment Opportunities’, Harvard Business Review, July–August 1972, p. 55.
See J. Thackray, ‘The Disinvestment Boom’, Management Today, January 1982, p. 47.
See J. E. Ross and M. J. Kami, Corporate Management in Crisis (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1973). Ch. 5.
See D. Arnott, ‘Bunzl’s Unfiltered Future’, Management Today, November 1982, p. 68.
N. Newman, ‘Fisons’ Unfertilised Future’, Management Today, May 1982, p. 44.
Ibid., p. 48.
See W. S. Howe, The Dundee Textiles Industry 1960–1977 (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1982) Ch. 3.
See G. D. Newbould, ‘Implications of Financial Analyses of Takeovers’ in J. M. Samuels (ed.), Readings on Mergers and Takeovers (London: Elek Books, 1972) pp. 12–24.
Thackray, ‘The Disinvestment Boom’, p. 46.
Ibid.
See Financial Times, 17 December 1983.
See Sunday Times, 11 December 1983.
See note 1 above.
See R. Cohen and S. Slatter, ‘How to Divest’, Management Today, May 1983, p. 92.
Hayes, ‘New Emphasis on Divestment Opportunities’, p. 56.
M. E. Porter, Competitive Strategy (New York: Free Press, 1980) p. 263.
Quoted in C. Raw, Slater Walker (London: Deutsch, 1977) p. 243.
Hayes, ‘New Emphasis on Divestment Opportunities’, p. 58.
D. J. Spurrell, ‘Business Strategy in the United Kingdom — The Challenge from Abroad’, National Westminster Bank Quarterly Review, August 1980, p. 37.
See Boston Consulting Group, Strategy Alternatives for the British Motor Cycle Industry, A Report to the House of Commons (1975).
B. Chiplin and M. Wright, ‘Divestment and Structural Change in UK Industry’, National Westminster Bank Quarterly Review, February 1980, pp. 42–51; and S. Lye and A. Silbertson, ‘Merger Activity and Sales of Subsidiaries Between Company Groups’, Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, August 1981, Vol. XLIII, pp. 257–72.
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© 1986 W. Stewart Howe
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Howe, W.S. (1986). Divestment. In: Corporate Strategy. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-18213-8_11
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