SAFRAN CLOSES ROCKET ENGINE DEAL
PROPULSION Safran has finalised its acquisition from SNPE Group of SNPE Matériaux Energétiques and its subsidiaries, including a 50% stake in Roxel, a maker of solid rocket motors for tactical missiles, and a 40% stake in Kourou, French Guiana-based Regulus, which makes launcher propellants. These businesses will join Safran's Bordeaux-based Snecma Propulsion Solide unit, boosting its revenue by about one-third to €600 million ($858 million).
UK AND SWEDISH trade GROUPS JOIN ARMS
associations The UK's ADS aerospace, defence and security trade group has signed a co-operation agreement with Swedish counterpart SOFF. SOFF chairman Peter Lundberg says: "Business today is more than ever a question of co-operation."
MICROTECNICA sold TO GOODRICH
PRIVATE EQUITY London private equity firm Stirling Square Capital is to sell to Goodrich its Microtecnica business, an Italian maker of flight actuation and thermal control systems for fixed-wing and rotary aircraft. Microtecnica operates three facilities in Italy and a UK R&D office. Stirling Square supported a 2008 management buyout.
HYDERABAD FIRM EYES INTEGRATOR STATUS
EXPANSION Samuha Engineering, a conglomerate of defence and aerospace companies located in and around Hyderabad, has been allotted 80Ha (200 acres) in the local aerospace special economic zone, where it plans next year to expand from component fabrications to subsystems manufacture and systems integration.
CROMA TO EXIT AVIONICS
PRIVATE EQUITY Oak Manor Investments is to purchase Croma's wholly owned RDDS Avionics subsidiary for about £1 million ($1.6 million) in cash plus up to £500,000 linked to the performance of RDDS after completion. In the 12 months to 30 June 2010, RDDS made a profit before tax of £63,000 on turnover of £1.99 million. Croma intends to focus on its facilities security businesses.
SYNCHRONOUS BUYS MACHINIST WEAVER
ACQUISITION Santa Ana, California-based Synchronous Aerospace is to acquire Weaver Manufacturing, a Wichita provider of precision machining and structural parts assemblies for commercial, military and general aviation aircraft, for an undisclosed sum. Synchronous provides machined parts and composite, metallic and metal-bonded airframe structures for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and spacecraft.
ITP boosts Bilbao foundry stake to 80%
INVESTMENT Industria de Turbo Propulsores, the 53-47 engine components joint venture between Sener Aeronautica and Rolls-Royce, has increased its stake in lost wax casting foundry Precicast Bilbao from 60% to 80% with a €12 million ($17 million) capital investment. The remaining 20% belongs to Swiss company Precicast. PCB suffered "major losses" in 2010 partly because of delays to the Airbus 380, Airbus Military A400M and Boeing 787 programmes.
AJ WALTER set for GATWICK CAMPUS
SPARE PARTS A J Walter Aviation has acquired 24Ha (60 acres) to develop a campus-style global headquarters and logistics centre close to London Gatwick airport, UK, including purpose-built office and storage facilities for its range of Airbus and Boeing components, engines and consumables. The facility will open in autumn 2012.
Source: Flight International
