We’ll see

t’s Show Time again. The hustle

and bustle of what must rank as

the biggest PM show on earth will

take over a corner of Las Vegas for

a week in one of that city’s newest

hotel and resort complexes, the

Mandalay Bay.

Now, to get star billing in Las Vegas, a

town that seems to change by the day

without the luxury of sleep, the pitch

must be something special.

And it appears that it is. The confer-

ence programme paints the Mandalay in

suitably purple prose . . . 3 200 luxurious

rooms...15 world-class restaurants-clubs

and attractions including the “legendary

House of Blues”... and, of course, the

casino - 135 ooo square feet of it dedicat-

ed to separating the unwary from their

hard earned cash while having some

innocent fun.

metal-powder.net

you in Las But with the packed programme pre-

pared by the organising committee of

the Metal Powder Industries Federation

delegates will need to be able to relax.

With 61 sessions each containing three

papers and a special interests pro-

gramme running parallel, they will

need to be discriminating in making

choices of where they want to be, and

when.

And that’s without taking in the Trade

Exhibition, an important source of techni-

cal information in itself and a focus for

information exchange and, of course,

gossip. Metal Powder Report will be

there, naturally, and we hope to see you

at the stand, to get your take on the

business and to hear your views.

The show’s organisers have thought-

fully included an option to see the West

End and Broadway hit show Mama Mia,

and those arriving reasonably early can

take up the option of an out-of-town trip

to see one of man’s (quite literally) tow-

ering achievements in the shape of the

massive Hoover Dam - all 700 plus feet

of it in concrete and steel, controlling the

wild Colorado River while providing elec-

tricity and irrigation.

Some of the chat at the show will

inevitably centre on the agreed takeover

of Canadian PM auto components manu-

facturer Stackpole - a giant in this indus-

try - by British engineering conglomerate

Tomkins.

The deal looks to be a good one for

shareholders, giving them very nearly a

Vegas 40 per cent premium on the share price

the day the deal was announced, and

substantially more than that if the sale

price is compared with the average for

the shares over previous months.

It’s good for Stackpole too. The brand

will not disappear; far from it. It is far too

valuable to lose. Stackpole’s position in

the industry is established and well

respected.

But what deal does do is to give

Stackpole access to the financial clout of

its new parent. That clout is considerable

given that the sale was conducted for

cash from Tomkins reserves. Tomkins

enjoys sales of around f3 billion a year,

employs 40 ooo people around the world

and is already a major supplier to the

auto industry with brands like Trico and

Gates in its stable.

They aim to raise their profile in the

drivetrain and powertrain segments of

the business and it would be hard to

imagine a better placed vehicle than

Stackpole to bring that ambition to reali-

ty. The deal raises Stackpole’s profile still

further, giving renewed confidence to its

customers and opening much wider the

door to new markets in Europe and the

rest of the world.

It’s not too often that a takeover can

truly be said to be win: win. But this

occasion is one of them.