Frank Lanza, L-3 Communications' chairman and chief executive, is looking to acquire a European company and doesn't care who knows it. As one of L-3's PR staff says: "We don't comment on rumour and speculation - but Frank sure will."
Lanza already has his preferred shopping list. He says he's looking for a medium-sized acquisition, preferably in the UK.
"We don't want to ignore Europe - we still think it is a good marketplace for us and we want to see if we can get a bigger foothold. An acquisition would give us a springboard for the programmes we already have there.
"We're looking for something in the 100 million-400 million ($180 million-$730 million) bracket. It could be smaller, but that's the kind of range."
L-3 Communications already has a joint venture called GMAS with Finmeccanica on the C-27J, plus ACSS, an ongoing partnership with Thales in North America. It also has a $50 million operation in Germany called ELAC that has given L-3 a foothold in the anti-submarine warfare market.
Support
"Right now we are doing about 13-14% of our business internationally and want to expand that to 18-20%," says Lanza. "We need joint ventures because they're necessary if you want to go after big programmes.
"But the support programmes we're involved in now, like Astor and the Nimrod modernisation, are all long-term that require a European presence with nationals that are European, not American.
"Joint ventures solve one problem, but you also need to have your own people in the countries in which you do business," Lanza says.
So who is L-3 looking at? "We'd be very interested in Alstom because they're very good in supporting the US on the next-generation electrically-driven ships. The power generation part of Alstom is also a very good fit with L-3, and they have operations in the US, UK, France and Germany," says Lanza.
"I think Qinetiq is a great company too. It is like a little version of the US DARPA. They are teamed with us on the big UK programmes already, but I'd like to see if we can make a stronger business relationship with them, which could be an acquisition too. "Just remember though, the people you want to buy must agree that they want to be bought."
Source: Flight Daily News
