Racal

Racal Electronics plc

Former type	Public
Fate	Acquired by Thomson-CSF
Successor	Thales plc
Founded	1950
Defunct	January 2000
Headquarters	Weybridge, United Kingdom
Key people	Sir Ernest Harrison (Chairman)
Industry	Electronics

Racal Electronics plc was once the third-largest British electronics firm. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was also the parent company of Vodafone, before the mobile telephony provider was sold in 1991. Racal was purchased by Thomson-CSF (now Thales Group) in 2000, thereby giving the French firm access to the lucrative UK defence and armaments market.

History

Racal was created in 1950 as Racal Ltd, the name being derived from the partners RAymond Brown and George CALder Cunningham.^[1] The first factory was located in Isleworth, West London. On outgrowing this site it moved to Bracknell, Berkshire.

Although Racal had won a Royal Navy contract to build and supply a variant of the American Collins Model 51-J Radio Receiver, they were not granted a licence to build these sets by Collins Inc. This meant that Racal had to design and build a radio receiver from scratch. The result was the famous 'RA17' - in production from 1955 to at least 1973 - designed in cooperation with Dr. Trevor Wadley and utilising his famed Wadley Loop circuit.^[2]

In 1979, Racal bought Decca Radar forming Racal-Decca. Racal-Datacom conducted business in the United States.^[3]

In 1983, Racal competed for one of the original licences to operate a cellular network in the UK, both it and British Telecom were successful. Racal established the Racal Telecom (now Vodafone) subsidiary. In 1988, 20% of Racal Telecom was floated on the London Stock Exchange.^[4] This would lead to the situation where Racal Electronics was valued at less than its shareholding in Racal Telecom. Sir Ernest Harrison (Racal Chairman) demerged Racal Telecom in October 1991 forcing a positive valuation on the rest of Racal (colloquially known in the City as "the rump"). Vodafone would later become the largest mobile network in the world and the highest valued company on the FTSE 100. Immediately following the demerger, Williams Holdings launched a takeover bid for Racal. The bid, valued at £740m, failed.^[5]

In 1984, Racal bought Chubb, a security company that manufactured safes and locks. In 1992, Chubb was demerged from Racal^[6] and was subsequently taken over by Willams Holdings in 1997 for £1.3bn.

Racal re-established a telecoms division with a major government contract in 1988 and the acquisition of British Rail Telecommunications in 1995.^[7] This division of the former nationalised industry owned telecoms infrastructure laid across the rail network.

In 1994, Camelot Group won the franchise to operate the UK National Lottery, Racal had a 22.5% share. After one of the founder shareholders, GTECH, was bought out by Camelot this stake increased to 26.67% which Thales continues to hold.^[8]

In 1995 Racal expanded its defence businesses with the acquisition of the Thorn Sensors Group from Thorn EMI.^[9]

In 1998 all of Racal defence businesses were reorganised under Racal Defence Electronics Ltd into Racal Radar Defence Systems, Racal Radio and Racal Thorn.

In October 1999 Racal decided to sell its telecoms business to the American communications group, Global Crossing, for £1bn.^[10]

Then in January 2000 Thomson-CSF announced a bid for the Company: Racal became Thomson-CSF Racal plc and later part of Thales plc with the renaming of the larger Thomson-CSF to Thales Group.^[11]

Operations

Racal was a diversified company, offering such products as voice and data recorders, point of sale terminals and various laboratory instruments, as well as military-related products. It operated throughout 110 countries world-wide and employed over 30,000 people.

References

External links

• Thales Group website
• Thales UK website