Last year was an exciting one for Melrose Industries' (MRO) shareholders. After receiving £2.4bn from the sale of Elster in February, the turnaround specialist's investors were then asked to stump up £1.6bn in a 12-for-one rights issue to help fund the reverse takeover of air management, security, home automation and productivity solutions specialist Nortek in August for an enterprise value of £2.2bn.
Nortek more than tripled Melrose's revenue, although that perhaps shouldn't come as a big surprise given the size of the deal. Still, shareholders who took up their rights will be pleased with how Melrose, which specialises in buying, polishing and selling underperforming manufacturing companies, worked its magic in the first four months of ownership.