Vickers' breakup, debt and wartime asset losses

How did the British government obtain the money to break up Vickers?

In this account, legal powers and debt made breakup possible after wartime losses had weakened the company.

In the panel's account, legal powers and debt made Vickers vulnerable to breakup without the government first accumulating a fund to buy it. Unprofitable activities and wartime losses of overseas assets had weakened the company. Roughly 40 percent of its assets are estimated to have been seized, while near-interest-free financing of British weapons production added another burden. Overseas holdings could disappear through enemy seizure or British wartime sales. Vickers is said to have had enough reserves to resist financial pressure after the First World War, but lacked that protection in the 1950s.