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Constellation Automotive Group
Constellation Automotive Group is a used vehicle marketplace. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1946, as Southern Counties Car Auctions, and was a publicly traded company, BCA Marketplace, when acquired and taken private by TDR Capital in November 2019. TDR rebranded it to the current name in October 2020. History In 1946, Royal Navy officer David Wickins decided to sell his Riley Lynx tourer. Placing an advert in the local newspaper, he offered to sell the car to the first person who turned up at his mother's house in Farnham, Surrey with £200. Arriving home late, he found a crowd of eager buyers, and so auctioned the car off for £420. Wickins then rented a farmer's field at Frimley Bridges, now under junction 4 of the M3 motorway on the A331 by Hawley Road in Frimley, Surrey, and set up his first public auction. The 14 cars sold for a total of £8,250. Wickins and one of his brothers immediately founded Southern Counties Car Auctions, which, when he left the Royal N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Wickins
David Allen Wickins (15 February 1920 – 28 January 2007) was an English accountant-turned-entrepreneur, best known for founding the vehicle remarketing business British Car Auctions, and saving Lotus Cars. Early life David Allen Wickins was born in Tilehurst, near Reading, Berkshire on 15 February 1920. The seventh child of an architect-turned- builder who was 64 when David was born, his father was one of the first civilian casualties killed in London at the start of the Luftwaffe air raids during the Second World War. His mother was a successful antiques dealer, enabling him to be educated at St George's College, Weybridge, by Josephites. Wickins described his schooling as ''"very academic, very hard"'', though an aptitude for figures allowed him to run a betting book for fellow pupils. Early career On leaving school he was recommended to apply to take articles with accountants Deloitte & Co in London. On gaining his chartered membership, he volunteered to be posted t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conglomerate (company)
A conglomerate () is a type of multi-industry company that consists of several different and unrelated List of legal entity types by country, business entities that operate in various industries. A conglomerate usually has a Holding company, parent company that owns and controls many Subsidiary, subsidiaries, which are legally independent but financially and strategically dependent on the parent company. Conglomerates are often large and Multinational corporation, multinational corporations that have a global presence and a diversified portfolio of products and services. Conglomerates can be formed by merger and acquisitions, Corporate spin-off, spin-offs, or joint ventures. Conglomerates are common in many countries and sectors, such as Media (communication), media, Finance, banking, Energy industry, energy, mining, manufacturing, retail, Arms industry, defense, and transportation. This type of organization aims to achieve economies of scale, market power, Risk management, ris ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reverse Takeover
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public company is bought by the private company through an asset swap and share issue. The transaction typically requires reorganization of capitalization of the acquiring company. Process In a reverse takeover, shareholders of a private company purchase control of a public shell company/ SPAC, and then merge it with the private company. The publicly traded corporation is called a "shell," since all that exists of the original company is its organizational structure. The private company shareholders receive a substantial majority of the shares of the public company and control of its board of directors. The transaction can be accomplished within weeks. The transaction involves the private and shell company exchanging information on each other, negot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lotus Cars
Lotus Group (also known as Lotus Cars) is a British multinational automotive manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicles. Lotus Group is composed of three primary entities. Lotus Cars, a high-performance sports car company, is based in Hethel, Norfolk. Lotus Technology Inc. (), an all-electric lifestyle vehicle company, headquartered in Wuhan, China, and operates regional facilities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany. Additionally, Lotus Engineering, an engineering consultancy firm, is headquartered at the Lotus Advanced Technology Centre (LATC) located at the University of Warwick, University of Warwick's Wellesbourne Campus. Lotus was founded and owned for many years by Colin Chapman. After his death and a period of financial instability, it was bought by General Motors, then Romano Artioli and then DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary PROTON Holdings, Proton, which owned Lotus from 1996 to 2017. Lotus is currently majority-owned by Chinese multinat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motor Racing
An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power generation), heat energy (e.g. geothermal), chemical energy, electric potential and nuclear energy (from nuclear fission or nuclear fusion). Many of these processes generate heat as an intermediate energy form; thus heat engines have special importance. Some natural processes, such as atmospheric convection cells convert environmental heat into motion (e.g. in the form of rising air currents). Mechanical energy is of particular importance in transportation, but also plays a role in many industrial processes such as cutting, grinding, crushing, and mixing. Mechanical heat engines convert heat into work via various thermodynamic processes. The internal combustion engine is perhaps the most common example of a mechanical heat engine in which hea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark Thatcher
Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet; his sister is Carol Thatcher. His early career in business led to suggestions that he was benefiting from his mother's position, notably in relation to the Al-Yamamah arms deal. He left the UK in 1986, and has since lived in the United States, Switzerland, Monaco, South Africa, Gibraltar, Barbados, Guernsey, and Spain. In 2003 ''The Sunday Times'' estimated his wealth at £60 million, most of which was suggested to be in offshore accounts. In 2005, he was convicted and given a four-year suspended prison sentence and fined in South Africa for funding the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup attempt. He has two children by his first wife, Diane Burgdorf. He married his second wife, Sarah-Jane Russell (''née'' Clemence), in 2008. Following his father's death in 2003, he became S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denis Thatcher
Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was an English businessman and the husband of Margaret Thatcher, who served as the first female British prime minister from 1979 to 1990; thus, he became the first male prime ministerial spouse. Thatcher was granted the Thatcher baronetcy in 1990, the only baronetcy created since 1964, and remains the most recent non-royal to have been awarded a hereditary title. Early life Denis Thatcher was born on 10 May 1915 at 26 Southbrook Road, Lee, Lewisham, London, as the first child of New Zealand–born British businessman Thomas Herbert "Jack" Thatcher and Lilian Kathleen Bird. At age eight, Denis entered a preparatory school in Bognor Regis as a boarder, following which he attended the nonconformist public school Mill Hill School in north London. At school he excelled at cricket, being a left-handed batsman. Thatcher left Mill Hill School in 1933 and joined the family paint and preservatives business, Atlas Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly the Conservative Party and colloquially known as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party. The party sits on the Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing of the Left–right political spectrum, left-right political spectrum. Following its defeat by Labour at the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 2024 general election it is currently the second-largest party by the number of votes cast and number of seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons; as such it has the formal parliamentary role of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. It encompasses various ideological factions including One-nation conservatism, one-nation conservatives, Thatcherism, Thatcherites and Traditionalist conservatism, traditionalist conservatives. There have been 20 Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scratch Golfer
The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs. 0–9 ; : The clubhouse bar. A B ;Bag ; Ball: A small sphere used in playing golf, which is intended to be struck by a player swinging a club. Balls are usually white, covered in dimples, and made of a variety of materials. ; Ball-marker: A token or a small coin used to spot the ball's position on the green prior to lifting it. ; Ball retriever ; Ballstriking: the combination of a golfer's driving and approach play (i.e. long game), as opposed to '' short game'' ; Ball washer: A device found on many tees for cleaning golf balls. ; Banana-ball: The result of a severe slice that results in a trajectory in the shape of a banana. This is also referred to as an extreme slice. ; Bandi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yateley
Yateley () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. It lies in the north-eastern corner of Hart District Council area, and is approximately 33 mi (53 km) southwest of Central London. It includes the settlements of Frogmore and Darby Green to the east. Yateley's population was 20,334 at the 2021 census.Yateley Town Councilis one of the few local councils recognised under the national 'Quality Council' award scheme. In 2011, Hart district was named the UK's most desirable place to live, and Yateley was mentioned in a BBC News article as one of its towns. Yateley is known for hosting a family music festival every summerGig on the Green and a beer and wine festival every autumn. History The name ''Yateley'' derives from the Middle English 'Yate' meaning 'Gate' (into Windsor Forest) and 'Lea', a 'forest clearing'. In historical records, spelling variations include Hyatele, Yateleghe, Yatche, Yatelighe, Yeatley, Yeateley and Yatelegh. Amenities The pari ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackbushe Airport
Blackbushe Airport is an operational general aviation airport in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire. Built during the Second World War, Blackbushe is north of the A30 road between Camberley and Hook. For a time, it straddled this road, with traffic being stopped whilst airliners were towed across. The south side was used for aircraft maintenance, using wartime-built hangars. Today, only the part of the airfield that lay north of the A30 remains in active use. The historical name for the flat piece of land on which it is sited is Hartford Bridge Flats. The nearest towns are Yateley and Fleet. Blackbushe Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P693) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction as authorised by the licensee (Blackbushe Airport Limited). The aerodrome is licensed for night use. One of several airfields eclipsed since 1958 by the growth of Heathrow and Gatwick airp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly''. In December 2024, Tortoise Media acquired the paper from the Scott Trust Limited, with the transition taking place on 22 April 2025. History Origins The first issue was published on 4 December 1791 by W.S. Bourne, making ''The Observer'' the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. Believing that the paper would be a means of wealth, Bourne instead soon found himself facing debts of nearly £1,600. Though early editions purported editorial independence, Bourne attempted to cut his losses and sell the title to the government. When this failed, Bourne's brother (a wealthy businessman) made an offer to the government, which also refused to buy the paper but agreed to subsidise it in return for influence over its editori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
