Most businessmen credit U.S. merg er makers with the invention of cor porate conglomerates companies that grow by garnering others in unrelated fields. Not Britain's Leonard J. Matchan, 55, president and chairman of London-based Cope Allman Interna tional Ltd., who was in New York City last week to plug a venture in U.S.
women's fashions. Matchan grabbed a chance to stake a claim of his own. "I started all this conglomeration business eleven years ago," said he, "whereas you people only cottoned to it about a year ago."
Such U.S. corporations as Litton In dustries and Textron, which began play...