Melrose Prevails Over Dana in Hostile GKN Takeover

London-based turnaround firm Melrose Industries plc has narrowly overcome a rival bid from Dana Inc. to buy British engineering giant GKN plc for £7.9 billion ($11.1 billion).

Dana, which is headquartered in Ohio, had offered to create a new company out of GKN’s driveline business, a scheme GKN’s board described as a superior long-term play. But 52% of the company’s stockholders—led by hedge funds and other short-term investors—tendered their shares to Melrose.

In an earlier round of bidding, Melrose lowered its acceptance threshold to one share greater than 50%. Yesterday was the deadline for shareholders to decide.

Melrose, responding to earlier criticism, quickly declared its commitment to GKN’s r&d efforts and promised to make the company a British “industrial powerhouse” with a market capitalization greater than £10 billion ($14 billion).