Components and systems manufacturer Senior has purchased Thermal Engineering of Royston, Hertfordshire, UK for £21.8 million ($35.7 million) cash plus £6.5 million in debt.
This leaves private equity investor Privet Capital with a 20 times return on its 2010 acquisition of what was then a company making heavy losses.
Thermal, which specialises in the fabrication of parts subject to heat for applications such as cooling ducts and vanes, made a £400,000 operating loss in 2011, but in 2012 made £1.6 million on turnover to £16 million.
The company provides parts for the Airbus Military A400M's Europrop International TP400 engines, and also supplies Rolls-Royce and other aero engine majors.
For the ten months to the end of October 2013, Thermal's unaudited management accounts show sales of £14.5 million and normalised profit before interest, tax and depreciation of £2.2 million, with 240 employees.
Thermal will keep its existing staff and operate within Senior’s aerospace fluid systems division. Chairman Vardhan Rajkumar will remain with Privet, a self-styled “turnaround investor”, which will use the funds – and experience – of the Thermal investment “to recreate these successes at other opportunities within the aerospace and manufacturing sectors”.
Senior chief executive Mark Rollins says: “Thermal's capabilities in hot forming and insulation, combined with Senior's wider market access and financial strength, and the current healthy commercial aerospace markets, are expected to further enhance the future growth prospects for the Senior Group.”
Source: FlightGlobal.com
