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Johnson Matthey () is a British multinational speciality chemicals and sustainable technologies company headquartered in the United Kingdom. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and has been a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index since 2002. Today, the company has market capitalisation of over £6 billion with 12,000 employees operating in more than 30 countries. ==History== Johnson Matthey traces its origins to 1802, when Percival Norton Johnson set up business as a gold assayer in London. In 1851 George Matthey joined the business and its name was changed to Johnson & Matthey.〔 The following year the firm was appointed Official Assayer & Refiner to the Bank of England.〔 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. Beginning in 1957, the company published a journal, ''Platinum Metals Review''〔"Review: A Noble Rival to Gold". in 〕 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.〔Portrait of an Old Lady: Turmoil at the Bank of England By: Stephen Fey ISBN 0-670-81934-4〕 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 (the then owner of Puddle Dock and the Mermaid Theatre in London). The size of the loans 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 High Court inquiry into the bank's collapse.〔(Captain Moonlight: Offstage drama at the Mermaid ) The Independent, 12 December 1993〕) Because JMB was one of five members of the London Gold Fixing, Bank of England officials were worried that if it became insolvent confidence in the other bullion banks would be undermined, and panic could spread 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.〔(When was the last nationalisation? ) BBC News, February 2008〕 Most of JMB's business was subsequently sold to Mase Westpac. In 1989, worldwide annual turnover of Johnson Matthey was £1.43 billion, with industrial plants in Evere (Belgium), Wayne (Pennsylvania) and Kogarah (Australia). In 2008 Johnson Matthey acquired ''Argillon'', a business specialising in catalysts, for €214 million. In October 2010 Johnson Matthey acquired ''InterCAT'', a supplier of fluid catalytic cracking additives for the petroleum refining industry, for $56.2 million. Also in 2010 Johnson Matthey opened a new £34 million European emission control catalyst plant in Skopje, (Macedonia), which leveraged its manufacturing technology to produce catalysts for both light- and heavy-duty vehicles. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Johnson Matthey」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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