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General Electric Company [GEC]

GEC, The General Electric Company, p.l.c., is a world leader in electronic, communications, electrical and mechanical engineering. Founded in 1886, the company has an annual turnover in excess of £11 billion and employs some 127,000 people.

GEC Marine Limited, part of the GEC Marconi organisation, comprises Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Limited, Yarrow Shipbuilders Limited and NNC Limited. NNC Limited provides engineering and project management services to the nuclear, defence and power generation fields. The Company has expertise in nuclear licensing, decommissioning and waste management.

Vickers Shipbuilding & Engineering Limited (VSEL) builds submarines and large naval surface ships and supplies armaments, product support and general engineering. VSEL is the supplier of the Trident submarine fleet for the Royal Navy. The VSEL Submarine Machinery Installation Testing Establishment [SMITE] testing establishment, situated within VSEL, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England on the southern shores of the Lake District, was built in 1976 to build and test the main machinery for Britain's nuclear submarine fleet.

In March 1997, the Ministry of Defence placed a £2 billion contract with GEC-Marconi for three nuclear-powered submarines. The new boats, a development of the Trafalgar Class submarines now in operation, are to be known as the Astute Class. Powered by Rolls Royce PWR2 reactors, they are expected to enter service early next decade, replacing the older Swiftsure Class, the first of which was commissioned in 1973. The Royal Navy currently had twelve nuclear-powered submarines, five Swiftsure Class and seven Trafalgar Class. The 1997 contracts were reported to secure some 7,000 jobs.

On 28 March 2000, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Steven Byers, announced that he had accepted undertakings (the Undertakings) in lieu of reference to the Competition Commission under section 75G of the Fair Trading Act 1973 (the Act) from British Aerospace plc (subsequently re-named BAE SYSTEMS) to remedy competition and other public interest concerns arising from the acquisition by BAE SYSTEMS of the Marconi Electronic Systems business (MES) of The General Electric Company, plc.