UNC IS TO ACQUIRE Garrett Aviation Services for around $150 million, in a move which creates one of the world's largest independent aviation-service groups. UNC does not rule out further acquisitions.
Garrett Aviation, which is the principal factory-sponsored support centre for AlliedSignal engines, posted sales of $330 million in 1994, while UNC turned over an estimated $535 million. Together the businesses expect to approach the $1 billion mark.
The acquisition will take UNC's engine-overhaul business above $500 million, in particular strengthening the group's presence in the business-aviation market.
Garrett Aviation became an independent company in 1994, when AlliedSignal sold the business to a management-led investor group. The company employs around 1,000 workers at sites in California, Texas and its Phoenix, Arizona, headquarters.
Garrett Aviation will now become the largest unit in UNC's newly created Aircraft and Engine Services division, with Garrett chief David Clemons in place as its new president.
UNC chairman Dan Colussy says that the acquisition represents the most important step to date in the former nuclear-engineering group's re-focusing around aviation, carried out through a five-year spree of acquisitions.
"It gives us the critical mass needed to have the dominant position in the business-aviation aftermarket," he says, adding that further acquisitions are now being discussed.
UNC failed to acquire Ryder Aviall's corporate-aircraft and helicopter engine-repair businesses in 1994, but Colussy says that the group is still interested.
"It's hard to say if there will be other acquisitions this year, but I would not rule it out. The industry is still in the acquisition mode. If a good deal comes along and we can finance it, we'd be interested," he comments.
Source: Flight International