By Ben Martin
LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) - Melrose Industries hasnarrowly clinched an 8 billion-pound ($11 billion) takeover ofBritish engineer GKN, after a three-month battle forcontrol of the FTSE 100 company.
The UK-based turnaround specialist said on Thursday that52.4 percent of GKN's shareholders had accepted its hostilecash-and-shares offer by the time the deadline for a dealexpired at 1200 GMT.
That just surpassed the acceptance threshold of 50 percentplus one share that Melrose had set for the takeover of theaerospace and automotive parts supplier.
It means Melrose has triumphed with Britain's biggesthostile bid since Kraft pounced on confectionery giant Cadburyin 2009.
GKN, led by chief executive Anne Stevens, had put up astaunch defence that included striking a separate deal to mergeits autos division with U.S. firm Dana, a tie-up thatwas dependent on the failure of the Melrose takeover.
"We are delighted and grateful to have received support fromGKN shareholders for our plan to create a UK industrialpowerhouse with a market capitalisation of over 10 billionpounds and a tremendous future," said Christopher Miller,Melrose's chairman.
Its offer is now expected to become unconditional by April19.
($1 = 0.7128 pounds)(Reporting by Ben Martin; Editing by Adrian Croft and MarkPotter)
