Thales-MESL Ltd., a leading manufacturer of microwave components for the communications and defense industries has been acquired from Thales Holdings UK plc, a subsidiary of Thales SA, by a combination of industrial investors — Lars McBride, Anthony Smith and William Buist-Wells. In the future, the company will be known as MESL Microwave Ltd. and will continue to be run on a day-to-day basis by its current managing director Mike Huggan and his existing management team. Anthony Smith will become chairman and Lars McBride and William Buist-Wells will join the board as directors.
MESL Microwave is headquartered near Edinburgh, UK, and is one of Europe’s leading designers and manufacturers of microwave components and subsystems, principally supplying customized solutions used in telecommunications base stations, point to point radio links and military radar systems. Specific products include high power (waveguide) ferrite components, diplexers, circulators/isolators and SAW pulse compression components.
Commenting on the acquisition Smith said, “MESL has an excellent reputation as a manufacturer of custom microwave components and can count many of the world’s leading telecoms and defense companies among its customers. With Mike Huggan and his team we have widely experienced management, keen to grow the business both in developed markets and in China where we already manufacture. We are looking forward to supporting the company with substantially increased levels of capital investment.”