UK industrials: The end of an era

Big quoted British industrial companies are an endangered species. The FTSE-100 is likely to lose two of them, cutting the sector’s market capitalisation by a quarter. Each story is different, but there is a cumulative lesson - UK heavy industry is slipping away. Corus is on the block. Innumerable restructurings have not been able to keep the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker independant. BAE, the contractor formerly known as British Aerospace, sees greener pastures in the US, and is planning to move its ...