Carlyle Group to reap huge profit from QinetiQ float

[spindrifter]

Mark Milner, industrial editor
Thursday January 26, 2006
The Guardian
QinetiQ, the government's defence and security technology business, will come to the stock market next month with a value of up to £1.33bn, making multi-millionaires of its chairman and chief executive and huge profits for the US private equity group, Carlyle.
<snip>
If the shares were sold at 205p, the top of the price range, the 31% Carlyle stake - bought for £42.4m in 2003 - would be worth £338m.
<snip>
The company's biggest shareholder, the Ministry of Defence, which has been criticised for selling the stake to Carlyle too cheaply, would see its 56% holding worth £623m.

<snip>

Backstory

QinetiQ began life as part of the Minstry of Defence's research laboratories. It can trace its history from the birth of powered flight in Britain, through the development of radar during the second world war, to thermal imaging, liquid crystal displays and internet technology during the cold war. In 1991 the government put its non-nuclear defence research operations, much of which subsequently became QinetiQ, into a separate company - DERA. In 2002 Carlyle was chosen as a strategic partner, purchasing its stake in the following year.

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1694897,00.html
++++++++++++++

Chimpy won't have to worry about picking up those speaker's honoraria when he gets out of prison.

[Canuckistanian]

1. The feeding trough for the elite

Not too many get to play in THIS game.