Tomkins hot on takeovers again

TOMKINS, the engineering group once famed for its acquisitive nature, plans to return to the takeover trail following two years of asset sales and damaging rows over executive perks.

New chief executive Jim Nicol, who stands to reap a £26m pay packet over the next three years, said Tomkins was considering purchases aimed at moving it away from low-growth industrial products towards more technology-based goods.

It would also sell more businesses it believed offered few growth prospects, adding to the £1.7bn raised through disposals overseen by chairman David Newlands in the past 18 months.

'Some of the acquisitions will be less than £100m each but there are also some bigger ones we are looking at,' Nicol said. 'It is quite an attractive environment right now and we are very hot on the acquisition trail.'

Poor markets for many of Tomkins' industrial products led to a 14% fall in operating profit from continuing businesses to £265.9m for the year ended April. This included £26m of restructuring costs. The dividend is held at 12p a share.