Leading UK trade moulder and extrusion company McKechnie Automotive & Engineered Plastics (GB-Stamford Bridge, York YO4 1AL; www.mckechnie-plastics.co.uk) is in new ownership. Together with the rest of the McKechnie Group (www.mckechnie.co.uk), it has been sold by private equity group Cinven (www.cinven.com) to a UK investment company, Melrose. In a combined deal valued at GBP 429m (EUR 632m), Melrose has also bought from Cinven a second UK manufacturing company, Dynacast Group (Alcester, Warwicks B49 6EW; www.dynacast.com). The transaction is the first by Melrose since it was formed as a cash shell 18 months ago. Cinven will retain a 16% stake in the business.

McKechnie Group had profits of GBP 21.6m in the year to 31 July 2004, down almost 30% from 2003. It has three plastics operations, in Yorkshire at Stamford Bridge and Pickering, and at subsidiary Burnett Polymer Engineering in Northampton. The group has a strong injection moulding focus on the automotive sector, but also produces single- and multi-shot components for the IT, medical, defence, telecommunications and consumer durable markets. Its extrusion business specialises in small bore tubing.

Dynacast Group is a world leader in precision die castings. It had profits of GBP 23.7m last year, up 20% on 2003. The combination of Dynacast with McKechnie creates a group with sales of GBP 600m.