Doosan Babcock - History

History

Doosan Babcock traces its history back to 1891 when the American Babcock & Wilcox Company formed a separately financed (capitalised at £250,000 initially) British company called Babcock & Wilcox Ltd. The initial board members of the British company included the renowned Scottish structural engineer Sir William Arrol and Andrew Stewart, of the Lanarkshire based steel tubemakers A & J Stewart & Menzies, subsequently Stewarts & Lloyds.

In 1979 Babcock & Wilcox Ltd was renamed Babcock International Ltd. This company was floated on the stock exchange in 1982, becoming Babcock International PLC. Babcock & Wilcox (Operations) Ltd, which had been formed in 1977 to undertake Babcock & Wilcox Ltd's core boilermaking activities, was renamed Babcock Power Ltd, which subsequently became Babcock Energy Ltd. In 1987 Babcock International etered into a short-lived meger with FKI Electricals plc, to form FKI Babcock PLC. In February 1989 FKI Babcock PLC demerged to form Babcock International Group PLC and FKI plc.

In 1995 a 75% stake in the boiler manufacturing and energy services activities (originally the core businesses of Babcock), by then known as Babcock Energy Ltd, were sold to Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding of Japan, and became Mitsui Babcock Energy Ltd. In 2006 Mitsui sold the company to Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction a subsidiary company of the Doosan Group of South Korea: at that time the UK company was renamed Doosan Babcock Energy Ltd. In 2009 the Czech-based steam turbine maker, Skoda Power, became part of Doosan Babcock Energy Ltd, the latter being renamed Doosan Power Systems Ltd in 2010. For developments subsequent to 2010 refer to Doosan Power Systems The extensive business records of the company from its formation in 1891 to 1989 are lodged at the University of Glasgow Archive Service.