LONDON — Two British engineering firms with plastics machinery and molding interests, BTR plc and Siebe plc, have joined in a merger that will cost 5,000 workers their jobs.
Siebe shareholders will take a 55 percent stake, with BTR's shareholders holding 45 percent of initially renamed BTR Siebe.
The companies, with combined sales of about £9.4 billion ($15.8 billion), expect the deal to provide savings of at least £250 million ($420 million) per year by the third year.
The companies have not provided details on the proposed cuts to their 125,000-strong work force.
Although London-based BTR has sold off the bulk of its plastics-related operations, it retains automotive component manufacturing subsidiaries, notably, plastic molding units in Brazil.
Siebe of Windsor, England, is organized in three divisions: controls, intelligent automation and industrial equipment. It supplies plastics extrusion equipment through APV, which Siebe acquired last year.
Siebe also supplies measurement and control systems to the plastics industry through subsidiaries in the intelligent automation division, including Eurotherm plc, Wonderware Corp. and Barber-Colman Co.
Siebe Automotive makes tubing and connectors. In Brazil, its Siebe Fluid Systems Ltda. of SÃŒo Paulo, formerly Tubotecnica Termopl sticos Ltda., produces single- and multilayer nylon pipe for cars.
