ENGINEERING group MB Aerospace, which employs more than 100 at its Motherwell base, has been sold in a secondary management buy-out (MBO) as it eyes a series of acquisitions.
Under the deal, US-based private equity fund Arlington Capital Partners is taking a majority stake in the business alongside the management team.
MB Aerospace, which has manufacturing operations at three sites in the UK and in the US, is in discussion with a number of takeover targets in the US which will see it significantly expand its current turnover of over $81 million (£54m).
MB Aerospace’s chief executive Craig Gallagher, who led the original MBO of the company from engineering group Motherwell Bridge in 2007, said the latest deal represented “a great vote of confidence in our US and UK employees and operations”.
“It also provides the group with significant opportunities for further expansion in the months and years ahead.”
Since the original MBO, backed by Lloyds-owned private equity group LDC, turnover has more than trebled and over the past 15 months MB Aerospace has acquired Gentz Aero of Detroit and Thomson Aero of Somerset.
John Garner of LDC said the buyout, which was for an undisclosed sum, represented an “excellent outcome for all parties”.
“Arlington Capital Partners shares MB Aerospace’s vision and is the ideal investor to support its continued international growth,” he said.
MB Aerospace manufactures and repairs aero-engine components. It supplies customers including Boeing, General Electric, GKN, Mitsubishi, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, United Technologies and Volvo Aerospace.