Devonport Management Limited owned and managed Devonport Royal Dockyard, the largest dockyard in Western Europe from 1987 until 2007. DML was purchased by

Babcock International Babcock International Group plc is a British aerospace, defence and nuclear engineering services company based in London, England. It specialises in managing complex assets and infrastructure. Although the company has civil contracts, its main b ...

and was rebranded Babcock Marine.

History

DML, then owned by Brown & Root and

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

, was one of three companies bidding for the Devonport contract in 1986. The others were Devonport Dockyard, formed by the then management of the dockyard, and a consortium of Foster Wheeler,

Appledore Shipbuilders Appledore Shipbuilders is a shipbuilder in Appledore, North Devon, England. History The Appledore Yard was founded in 1855 on the estuary of the River Torridge. The Richmond Dry Dock was built in 1856 by William Yeo and named after Richmon ...

and Wharton Williams. The DML ownership structure was restructured in 1987, with Brown & Root,

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is active ac ...

and Weir Group each owning 29.9% and Barclays de Zoete Wedd owning 10.3%. Vickers had formed a joint venture with Brown & Root which included its contracting arm. The management contract was awarded to DML on 24 February 1987, with management officially transferred on 6 April 1987 The dockyards remained property of the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

at this stage. In June 1993 DML was awarded the contract for refitting of

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

nuclear submarines. This was the result of a two-year highly politicised battle between DML and the management of

Rosyth Dockyard Rosyth Dockyard is a large Royal Navy Dockyard, naval dockyard on the Firth of Forth at Rosyth, Fife, Scotland, owned by Babcock Marine, which formerly undertook refitting of Royal Navy surface vessels and submarines. Before its privatisation i ...

in Scotland. The Rosyth Dockyard already had nuclear refitting facilities under construction when, in 1993, DML made an unsolicited bid to take over the work which in future would only be awarded to one yard. For the next two years the two dockyards made tit-for-tat claims regarding the suitability of their own facilities compared to their competitor. In 1994 GEC acquired Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering and withdrew it from the DML consortium. At the urging of the Ministry of Defence, Brown & Root took a 51% stake DML. In February 1993 DML purchased the Devonport yard for £40.3 million. In 1998 Brown & Root's parent,

Halliburton Halliburton Company is an American multinational corporation and the world's second-largest oil service company which is responsible for most of the world's fracking operations. It employs approximately 55,000 people through its hundreds of su ...

indirectly acquired The M. W. Kellogg Company and merged it with Brown & Root to form KBR. In 2006 it was announced that Halliburton would be floating its subsidiary KBR on the stock market, this went ahead against the wishes of the UK government and Ministry of Defence as they felt the floating of KBR would make the DML group unstable. In 2004 DML acquired

in North Devon. In early 2007 it was announced that the DML group was for sale and major players in the world defence industry were rumoured to be interested in buying the company from the current share holders.

BAE Systems BAE Systems plc is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Aerospace industry, aerospace, military technology, military and information security company, based in London. It is the largest manufacturer in Britain as of 2017. It is ...

was one of the companies rumoured to be interested; The '' Independent on Sunday'' suggested that the Ministry of Defence was keen to see these combined with BAE's submarine manufacturing facilities. In the end this sale was not completed and DML was bought by

instead. Only two companies lodged bids by the closing date; Babcock International and

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

. Babcock was announced as the successful bidder for Devonport in a deal that was worth £350 million and would secure them a 100% stake in the company.Naval dockyard bought for £350m
''

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

'' 10 May 2007 Babcock international announced that the DML Group would then become part of Babcock Marine, a new sector (of which Rosyth Dockyard is also a part) within its organisation. The deal was approved by the Ministry of Defence at the end of June 2007.

References

External links

DML Group
{{Authority control Defence companies of the United Kingdom Trident (UK nuclear programme) 1993 establishments in England 2007 disestablishments in England