Tenmat abandons Railko acquisition

¡¡¡¡Tenmat Abandons Railko Acquisition Tenmat Ltd. (UK) has abandoned its four-month effort to negotiate the acquisition of rival Railko (UK, a division of United Industries, UK). While it got through the due diligence phase, Tenmat was stymied in final negotiations with Railko's parent United Industries. Railko, founded in 1957, pioneered the use of engineered plastics, particularly in bearing applications. Today, Railko specializes in plastic bearings for automotive, rail, marine and industrial applications. The company employs approximately 125 people, 95 at its facility in the south of England near Heathrow Airport. Worldwide, Railko has 40 distributors and sales offices. Tenmat engineers and manufactures specialized, high performance, non-metallic composite engineering materials and components. Key among the end products are a wide variety of composite bearings (under the Fiberglide™ and Feroform™ brands, for example), ceramics, fire protection and insulation materials. Tenmat supplies products to a broad cross section of automotive, aerospace, industrial and naval applications throughout the world. The company, for example, supplies shaft drive bearings to the United States, German, and British Navys. With two locations in England, Tenmat also operates Tenmat GmbH (Germany), Tenmat Inc. (USA), Tenmat sarl (France), and Tenmat Ltd. (Italy). employing approximately 250 people in all. The failed acquisition is good news so far for Railko employees. As negotiations progressed, both sides revealed Tenmat planned to close Railko's facility -- absorbing it into a nearby Tenmat location -- which would have put virtually all Railko employees out of work.