P.M. BRIEFING : Manpower Is Back in Business
An unusual takeover saga drew nearer to a close today as the Manpower temporary employment agency discarded the name of the British predator that acquired it in 1987 and prepared to return its base to the United States.
Shareholders for London-based Blue Arrow PLC, which bought Manpower for $1.3 billion in a 1987 hostile takeover, overwhelmingly approved changing the company’s name to Manpower PLC during the firm’s annual meeting in London today.
Blue Arrow plans to mail to shareholders information about a proposal to reincorporate the company in the United States under the name Manpower Inc. and will reconvene a vote on that matter in the next three or four months, a company spokesman said.
The reincorporation plan, which is expected to win easy approval, would cap a remarkable comeback for Manpower founder Mitchell Fromstein. Within two years of having his company snatched out of his hands, Fromstein regained control by spearheading a boardroom coup that ousted Blue Arrow’s chief executive, Antony Berry.
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