Management buyouts buck corporate trends

Following a management buyout, the Coventry-based process engineering contractor CEL International is now an independent company. Formerly Courtaulds Engineering, CEL had been a business unit of the Acordis Group, the man-made fibres and speciality materials company. Against today's trends towards mergers and acquisitions, and with financial backing from a specialist venture capitalist, CEL will now be owned and led by its chief executive, Rodney Haynes, and deputy chief executive Ed Wilson.

Included in the buyout is Cortex, CEL's environmental and process consultancy. Commented Rodney Haynes: `This is an excellent opportunity for us to build on the success that has already been achieved. With the support of our customers and our highly experienced staff we are moving forward with a substantial workload, a good track record and a competitive basis for winning further work. The company will have the same management team and operationally we shall be identical to the previous organisation. No changes are envisaged.'

In 1988 CEL turned over £8million, with before tax profits of £469,000.

* Also backed by venture capital funding, in this case from 3i, is the £84million institutional buyout of Motherwell Information Systems from its parent Motherwell Bridge Holdings. With a turnover of around £44million, MIS is a rapidly growing international provider of IT and services to manufacturing and the utilities.