Melrose lists automotive arm Dowlais on London bourse

LONDON (Reuters) - Melrose Industries listed shares in the former automotive division of British engineer GKN on the London Stock Exchange Thursday, giving a boost to Britain's top bourse after it recently lost some high-profile listings to New York.

Shares in the newly created Dowlais opened at 146 pence and were trading at close to 110 pence prior to publication, implying a market capitalisation of around 1.5 billion pounds ($1.87 billion).

Dowlais, which encompasses GKN's Automotive, Powder Metallurgy and Hydrogen businesses, was spun off to existing Melrose shareholders.

Melrose acquired GKN in 2018 through a hostile takeover. It is holding on to GKN's Aerospace division, which manufactures airframe and engine structures and interconnection systems for the aerospace industry.

"For Melrose, the focus is now on the continued development of the Aerospace business," Melrose CEO Simon Peckham said in a statement.

The unit has the potential to reach 1 billion pounds of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) over the coming years, he added.

The listing comes after IPO levels in London plunged by roughly 90% last year, and follows a string of defections from domestic or locally listed companies looking for liquidity overseas.

($1 = 0.8029 pounds)

(Reporting by Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro; Editing by Jan Harvey)