By Ben Martin
LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - The chief executive of U.S.firm Dana Incorporated is in London meeting top GKNshareholders in a drive to persuade the Britishengineer's investors to back a deal with Dana and reject ahostile bid by Melrose Industries.
GKN agreed a $6.1 billion deal to merge its automotivedivision with Dana, an Ohio-based maker of axles anddriveshafts, on Friday in a transaction it hopes will help tofend off an unwanted takeover approach by Melrose, a UK-basedindustrial turnaround specialist.
Melrose responded to the Dana deal by raising itscash-and-shares bid for all of GKN on Monday, an offer that atthe time valued the FTSE 100 engineer at 8.1 billion pounds($11.3 billion) and which was declared "final", meaning itcannot be increased under Britain's takeover rules.
James Kamsickas, the Dana chief executive, is now in Britainto discuss the merits of the automotive deal with GKN's majorshareholders, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Dana CEO is expected to spend most of the week inBritain meeting GKN shareholders, one of the sources added.
The battle for the future of GKN, a mainstay of Britain'sengineering sector, is reaching its final stages.
GKN shareholders have two options. They can choose Melrose'soffer of 81 pence in cash for each GKN share plus 1.69 newMelrose shares, a deal that will hand them a 60 percent stake inthe London-listed turnaround specialist.
Or they can back GKN's plan, which would see them take a47.25 percent stake in New York-listed Dana.
GKN, led by new CEO Anne Stevens, has also pledged to selloff its powder metallurgy business, which along with the Danadeal would leave the engineering group focused on the aerospacesector, supplying parts for aircraft including the EurofighterTyphoon.($1 = 0.7181 pounds)(Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft)