PRECISION engineering company Trucast has acquired a new owner in a £101 million deal between aero engines group Rolls-Royce and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The Ryde-based company, which employs 310 people, is among seven businesses in this country and the US, involved in the deal.

A new management team led by David Bundred, a former group operations director with Lucas Aerospace, and Peter Smith, a former senior executive at GEC, has been appointed to run the group.

Rolls-Royce had owned Trucast, its American associate in South Carolina, since 1999 when it acquired Vickers engineering group, and says the move will help it focus more on its core business. The Ryde company and its American associate are a leading independent manufacturers turbocharger components in Europe and North America.

The companies specialise in products for the automotive, aerospace and industrial gas turbine markets. They employ around 1,220 staff between them.

Paul Isaacs, regional director of Royal Bank Private Equity, said: "Our objective is to build these businesses, which already have a reputation of being at the leading edge of precision manufacturing of products, into best-in-class operations.

"We plan to invest in the businesses, with specific objectives in view - our aim will be to turn them into world-class businesses.''