Thomas French & Sons Plc has divested its Tekdata Ltd electronic products subsidiary in Stoke on Trent in a UKP3.25m management buy out backed by the Royal Bank of Scotland and the venture capital group 3i – subject to approval by Thomas French shareholders: Tekdata was acquired by French in 1978 and manufactures cables for information technology and defence use, and has a peripherals division which markets electronic components and peripherals including floppy drives.