Australia's Tenix group, the country's largest privately owned independent defence contractor, is to be offered for sale, with financial adviser UBS expected to issue information on the divestment process this week.
Tenix started as a naval shipbuilder, but now has interests in all areas of defence contracting in Australia, as well as in the infrastructure services sector. It employs 4,000 people and has almost A$1 billion ($900 million) in annual revenues.
The sale is expected to attract interest from several international defence prime contractors, including BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Thales. Bids are also expected from within the Australian heavy engineering and infrastructure sectors.
Current military aerospace contracts held by Tenix Defence include the upgrade of FLIR and electronic warfare systems on Royal Australian Navy Sikorsky S-70B-2 Seahawk helicopters and electronic warfare self-protection systems on Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed Martin AP-3C Orion maritime-patrol and C-130H transport aircraft.
Tenix is the designated Australian industrial contractor for the Australian navy's two new LHD helicopter carriers, which are being built in Spain by Navantia.
The sale decision follows an internal business review that determined that "future growth opportunities and value creation will be superior when combined with the operations, scale and market strengths of leading companies with a global focus in these sectors", according to a statement issued by Tenix on 8 October.
Chief executive Greg Hayes says that "considerable interest" has already been shown in the business by "multiple parties".
Source: Flight International
