BBA Buys Hawker's FBO Business
Deal marks third Harris Williams-managed sale of an aircraft fixed-base operator this year.
July 25, 2008
BBA Aviation, a London aviation maintenance company, has completed its $128.5 million acquisition of Hawker Beechcraft Services’ fuel and line service business.
The transaction, announced Friday by Richmond, Va.-based investment banking firm Harris Williams & Co., marked the successful end of an auction process managed by Harris Williams, as well as its third completed sale of an aircraft fixed-base operator in the last year.
Fixed-base operation (FBO) businesses are areas located at airports that typically provide aircraft storage, maintenance, fuel, amenities and other services for aviators.
One of Harris Williams’ transactions involving an FBO was particularly large—Allied Capital’s $452 million sale of Cleveland-based Mercury Air Centers to Australia’s Macquarie Infrastructure Co. in August 2007. The exit, in turn, generated a solid return for Allied Capital, producing a $259 million gain, according to the Washington investment firm.
The closing of the Hawker Beechcraft FBO follows the execution of an add-on acquisition by a private equity-backed FBO earlier this month. Ross Aviation, a portfolio company of Centre Partners, announced its purchase of Laredo Aero Center at the Laredo International Airport in Laredo, Texas, on July 1 for an undisclosed sum. Formerly known as Lacey’s Serv-a-Jet, the purchase marks the ninth FBO deal carried out by Ross since its formation in 2004 by Los Angeles and New York-based Centre Partners and FBO industry executives Jeff Ross and Greg Ross.
Hawker Beechcraft, a Wichita, Kan.-based portfolio company of Toronto private equity firm Onex Partners and GS Capital Partners, the New York private equity arm of Goldman Sachs, struck its agreement to sell its fixed-based business to BBA in February. The seller divested the line service unit in order to focus on its own maintenance repair and aircraft overhaul business.
BBA will take control of seven base operation sites around the US including locations in Atlanta, Houston, San Antonio, Indianapolis, Tampa, Fla., Wichita, Kan., and a site in Van Nuys, Calif., that is expected to be sold shortly.
Harris Williams bankers Bram Hall, Luke Düster and Chris Rogers managed the sale on behalf of Hawker Beechcraft, which plans to retain its own maintenance and customer support facilities.
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