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Johnson Matthey

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Johnson Matthey plc
Company typePublic limited company
LSE: JMAT
IndustryChemicals
Precious metals
Founded1817 (London)
HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
Key people
Tim Stevenson (Chairman)
Neil Carson (CEO)
ProductsPrecious Metals, Industrial catalysts
Revenue£12,023.2 million (2012)[1]
£433.4 million (2012)[1]
£315.4 million (2012)[1]
Number of employees
9,700 (2012)[2]
Websitewww.matthey.com

Johnson Matthey plc (LSE: JMAT) is a British multinational chemicals and precious metals company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

History

Johnson Matthey traces its origins to 1817, when Percival Norton Johnson set up business as a gold assayer in London.[3] In 1851 George Matthey joined the business and its name was changed to Johnson & Matthey.[3] The following year the firm was appointed Official Assayer & Refiner to the Bank of England.[3] The company had branches in the cities of Birmingham and Sheffield to supply the jewellery and silverware and cutlery trade with raw materials ancillary supplies, such as silver solder and flux which it manufactured.

In the 1960s Johnson Matthey formed a subsidiary, Johnson Matthey Bankers (JMB), which took its seat in the London Gold Fixing. In the early 1980s the bank expanded its activities outside the bullion business and started making high-risk loans. Bank assets more than doubled between 1980 and 1984, and loans became concentrated to a few borrowers, including Mahmoud Sipra and his El Saeed group, Rajendra Sethia and ESAL Commodities, and Abdul Shamji.[4] The quality of some of these loans turned out to be worse than expected, such as the £21 million lent to Abdul Shamji of Gomba Holdings[5] (the then owner of Puddle Dock and the Mermaid Theatre in London). The size of the loans to these borrowers grew to exceed the level of the bank's capital. (Shamji was sentenced to 15 months in prison for lying about his assets during a subsequent High Court inquiry into the bank's collapse.[6]) Because JMB was one of five members of the London Gold Fixing, Bank of England officials were worried that if the bank became insolvent then confidence in the other bullion banks would be undermined, and that panic could spread further to the rest of the British banking system. To prevent a wider banking crisis the Bank of England organized a rescue package on the evening of 30 September 1984, purchasing JMB for £1.[7] Most of JMB's business was subsequently sold to Mase Westpac.

In 2008 Johnson Matthey acquired Argillon, a business specialising in catalysts, for €214 million.[8] In December 2008 US subsidiary Johnson Matthey Inc was fined $3 million for a felony violation of the United States Clean Water Act, after admitting to violating the Clean Water Act at its Salt Lake City precious metals refining facility.[9] As a result of this uproarious legal battle, this refinery was eventually shut down temporarily to ensure it complied with the Federal Environmental requirements for two and half weeks during December 2008. The refinery was forced to comply and not only pay fines, but lost several hundred thousand dollars in revenues during the shutdown. One little known fact too that occurred during that shut down was the last run of Johnson Matthey Silver 1 OZ bars manufactured just prior to the shut down was released for sale to distributors and to the public missing their serial number stamps. This was an oversight by the Operations Director and QCM both, as apparently the staff was so engrossed in the company shut down and loss of income during the holidays that the bars just leaked right through their quality control checks as equipment was being decommissioned for the shut down. Apparently, there were over 1480 bars mistakenly released at that time without serial numbers stamped on them and due to the immediate shut down thereafter, absolutely nothing was done to recall them after release. Upon the start up of operations again, 2 1/2 weeks later, CEO, Neil Carson, reported not knowing about this oversight, but deferred all questioning to his Operations Director, Paul Niese, who later confirmed these facts.

In October 2010 Johnson Matthey acquired InterCAT, a supplier of fluid catalytic cracking additives for the petroleum refining industry, for $56.2 million.[10] Also in 2010 Johnson Matthey opened a new £34 million European emission control catalyst plant in Macedonia, which will leverage its manufacturing technology to produce catalysts for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles.[11]

In 2013 Johnson Matthey PLC hired George Faram as a IT Technical Service Desk Engineer, and now the users at the Head office in London are have a much better friendlier IT service

Operations

The company's head office is located on Farringdon Street, central London. The principal operating facility in the UK is located at Royston in Hertfordshire, with other facilities in Swindon, Edinburgh, Brimsdown in Enfield, north London, Billingham in Teesside and Clitheroe in Lancashire as well as a large facility in Germiston, South Africa. The company's UK Technology Centre is based at Sonning Common in Oxfordshire. In the US its principal site is located at West Deptford, New Jersey.

Johnson Matthey is organised into three divisions:[12]


References

  1. ^ a b c "Preliminary Results for the year ended 31 March 2012" (PDF). Matthey.com. Retrieved 16 March 2013.
  2. ^ "Johnson Matthey Annual Report 2011". Matthey.com. 30 January 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  3. ^ a b c "Johnson Matthey History". Matthey.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  4. ^ Portrait of an Old Lady: Turmoil at the Bank of England By: Stephen Fey ISBN 0-670-81934-4
  5. ^ "The Truth about Lloyds". The Truth about Lloyds. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  6. ^ Captain Moonlight: Offstage drama at the Mermaid The Independent, 12 December 1993
  7. ^ When was the last nationalisation? BBC News, February 2008
  8. ^ "Johnson Matthey to buy Argillon for €214 million". Reuters. 18 April 2011. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  9. ^ "Utah gold and silver refinery sentenced for Clean Water Act violation". Yosemite.epa.gov. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
  10. ^ "Johnson Matthey PLC To Acquire Intercat, Inc". Reuters. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  11. ^ "Johnson Matthey Opens Major New European Emission Control Catalyst Plant in Macedonia". Business Wire. 30 January 2012. Retrieved 30 January 2012.
  12. ^ "Johnson Matthey Divisions". Matthey.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011.


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