Editing British Aerospace (section)

===Acquisitions and restructuring===
BAe acquired [[Royal Ordnance]], the British armaments manufacturer, for £190&nbsp;million on 22 April 1987. The German armaments specialist [[Heckler & Koch]] was folded into this division after BAe acquired it four years later.

In 1988, BAe purchased the [[Rover Group]] from the British government of [[Third Thatcher ministry|Margaret Thatcher]] for £150 million. The sale was controversial due to opaque financial arrangements between the government and BAe; however the House of Commons [[Business and Enterprise Select Committee|Trade and Industry Committee]] was said to believe that "in spite of a catalogue of complaints, the committee concludes that the sale to BAe may well have been the best solution for the government."<ref>Cassell, Michael (February 22, 1991). "The Rover Report; 'British Aerospace drove a hard bargain{{'"}}. ''Financial Times''.</ref>

In 1991, BAe acquired a 30% interest in [[Hutchison Telecommunications]] through a [[stock swap]] deal, where Hutchison was given a controlling stake of 65% in BAe's wholly owned subsidiary [[Microtel Communications Ltd]].<ref name=BAE-H-33>{{cite news |title=The Facts : 2004 |url= http://www.na.baesystems.com/PressKit/Facts.pdf |publisher =na.baesystems.com|page =107|access-date =9 June 2012|url-status =dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070125134301/http://www.na.baesystems.com/PressKit/Facts.pdf |archive-date =25 January 2007|df =dmy-all}}</ref><ref name=BAE-H-38/><ref name=OBS-H-04>{{cite web |url=http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/mobile-wireless-broadband/cellular-wireless-broadband/policy-and-background/history-of-cellular-services/ |title=History of Cellular services |access-date=9 June 2012 |publisher=licensing.ofcom.org.uk |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130205065028/http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/mobile-wireless-broadband/cellular-wireless-broadband/policy-and-background/history-of-cellular-services/ |archive-date=5 February 2013}}</ref> In August 1991, BAe formed a naval systems joint venture, [[BAeSEMA]], with the [[Sema Group]].<ref name=BAE-H-33/> BAe acquired Sema's 50% share in 1998. That year also saw BAe begin to experience major difficulties. BAe saw its share price fall below 100p for the first time. On 9 September 1991, the company issued a profits warning and later that week "bungled" the launch of a £432 million [[rights issue]].<ref>{{cite news |first = Paul |last = Betts | title = Leader toppled by unstoppable momentum | work = Financial Times | page = 28 | date = 26 September 1991 <!--| access-date = 7 December 2006 -->}}</ref> On 25 September 1991 BAe directors led by CEO [[Richard Evans (businessman)|Richard Evans]] ousted the Chairman Professor Sir Roland Smith in a move described by ''[[The Independent]]'' as "one of the most spectacular and brutal boardroom coups witnessed in many years."<ref>{{cite news |first = Michael |last = Harrison |title = Roland Smith ousted by boardroom coup at BAe |work =[[The Independent]]|publisher=Newspaper Publishing plc |page = 1 |date = 26 September 1991 <!--|access-date=7 December 2006 -->}}</ref> Evans described the troubles as a confluence of events:<ref>Evans, Richard (1999). ''Vertical Take-off'', p. 2. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. {{ISBN|1-85788-245-8}}.</ref>
<blockquote> "our property company [Arlington Securities] was hit with a lousy market. Sales of the Rover Group sank by about a fifth and losses mounted. The government's defence spending volumes underwent a major review. Losses in our commercial aerospace division increased dramatically with the recession in the airline industry."</blockquote>

In mid-1992, BAe wrote off £1 billion of assets, largely as part of [[Layoff|redundancies]] and restructuring of its regional aircraft division.<ref name="BAe soars">{{cite news |url=http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/bae-soars-out-of-the-red-1.741912 |first = Chris |last = Stone |title = BAe soars out of the red |work=The Herald |publisher=Caledonian Newspapers Ltd. |pages = 3, 7 |date = 16 September 1993 |access-date = 7 December 2006}}</ref> This was the largest asset write-off in UK corporate history. [[General Electric Company]] (GEC), later to sell its defence interests to BAe, came close to acquiring BAe at this time.<ref name="BAe soars"/> BAe cut 47% of its workforce (60,000 out of 127,000), 40,000 of which were from the regional aircraft division.

Evans decided to sell non-core business activities, which included the Rover Group, Arlington Securities, BAe Corporate Jets, BAe Communications and [[Ballast Nedam]]. Although the rationale of diversification was sound (to shield the company from cyclical aerospace and defence markets) the struggling company could not afford to continue the position: "We simply could not afford to carry two core businesses, cars and aerospace. At one point Rover was eating up about £2 billion of our banking capacity."<ref>Evans, Richard (1999). ''Vertical Take-off'', p. 6. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing. {{ISBN|1-85788-245-8}}.</ref> BAe Corporate Jets and Arkansas Aerospace were sold to [[Raytheon]] in 1993. In 1994, the Rover Group was sold to [[BMW]] and [[British Aerospace Space Systems]] was sold to [[Matra Marconi Space]]. In 1998, BAe's shareholding of [[Orange SA|Orange plc]] was reduced to 5%.<ref name=BAE-H-38>{{cite news |title = BAe's record-breaking sterling Eurobond issue |url = http://www.treasurers.org/system/files/TTOct99Brake14-15.pdf |date = 22 June 1999 |access-date = 11 June 2012 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130507093254/http://www.treasurers.org/system/files/TTOct99Brake14-15.pdf |archive-date = 7 May 2013 |url-status = dead }}</ref> The Orange shareholding was a legacy of the 30% stake in Hutchison Telecommunications (UK) Ltd.

In 1994, BAeSEMA, [[Siemens Plessey]] and [[Marconi Electronic Systems|GEC-Marconi]] formed UKAMS Limited as part of the [[PAAMS|Principal Anti-Air Missile System]] (PAAMS) consortium. UKAMS would become a wholly owned subsidiary of BAe Dynamics in 1998. In 1995, [[Saab AB|Saab Military Aircraft]] and BAe signed an agreement for the joint development and marketing of the export version of the [[JAS 39 Gripen]]. In 1996, BAe and [[Matra Defense]] agreed to merge their missile businesses into a joint venture called [[Matra BAe Dynamics]].<ref>BAe confirms Matra venture, ''Financial Times'' (London), August 17, 1996</ref> In 1997, BAe joined the [[Lockheed Martin]] [[F-35 Lightning II|X-35 Joint Strike Fighter]] team.<ref>August, Oliver (June 19, 1997). "BAe in JSF link with Lockheed". ''The Times''.</ref> The following year, BAe acquired the UK operations of [[Siemens Plessey|Siemens Plessey Systems]] (SPS) from [[Siemens]], while DASA purchased SPS' German assets.<ref name=SP-H-01/><ref name=SP-H-02/>

In the 1990s, BAe was the largest exporter based in the United Kingdom; a [[Competition Commission]] report released in 2005 calculated a ten-year aggregate figure of £45 billion, with defence sales accounting for approximately 80%.<ref>Competition Commission (1995) {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20050302075701/http://www.competition-commission.org.uk/rep_pub/reports/1995/fulltext/364c3.pdf British Aerospace Public Limited Company and VSEL Plc: A report on the proposed merger]}} p. 28.</ref>