Accurus Aerospace Corporation, a platform company formed earlier this year by Liberty Hall Capital Partners, has acquired Precise Machining & Manufacturing, a Tier II supplier of engineered machined parts to the aerospace industry. This is Accurus Aerospace’s first acquisition.
Precise Machining & Manufacturing supplies several commercial aerospace and military platforms, including the Boeing 737, 747, 777 and 787 and the Gulfstream G650, as well as select US military platforms. The company’s two largest customers are The Boeing Company and Spirit AeroSystems. The company was founded in 1974 and is based in Tulsa (www.precisemachining.com).
Liberty Hall’s strategy is to build Accurus Aerospace into a fully integrated, highly diversified Tier II aerostructures supplier through a combination of strategic investments and additional strategic acquisitions. Accurus Aerospace is based in Tulsa (www.accurusaero.com).
“As a private equity firm focused exclusively on the aerospace and defense industry, we identified significant growth opportunities available today for operationally and financially capable aero-structures suppliers,” said Rowan Taylor, Liberty Hall’s founding Partner. “With strong demand from emerging market economies and the competitive need for the most fuel-efficient commercial aircraft driving order backlogs to all-time highs, annual production of new aircraft is expected to increase significantly over at least the next decade. We believe this trend, coupled with the continuing need for original equipment manufacturers and Tier I suppliers to outsource manufacturing to cost-efficient Tier II suppliers, offers significant growth opportunities to well-positioned and well-capitalized suppliers like Accurus.”
Liberty Hall has recruited Jim Gibson, an aerospace industry veteran with more than 30 years of industry experience, to lead Accurus as its Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Gibson was most recently Executive Vice President of Business Development for Synchronous Aerospace Group, an aerostructures supplier, where he was responsible for new business development, strategy and identifying and integrating strategic acquisitions.
“The aerostructures segment of the aerospace market is large, growing and remains highly fragmented, providing an excellent opportunity for Accurus to take advantage of the current healthy commercial aerospace build cycle by building a reliable, diversified supplier with broad capabilities,” said Mr. Gibson.
Liberty Hall Capital Partners focuses exclusively on investments in businesses serving the global aerospace and defense industry. The firm was founded by Rowan Taylor in July 2011 and is headquartered in New York (www.libertyhallcapital.com).
“In looking for a knowledgeable and financially capable investment partner to help Precise continue to grow, Liberty Hall’s deep operating and investing expertise in the aerospace industry was critically important to us,” said Steve Mosher, Precise’s founder. “Because of those attributes, as well as Liberty Hall’s disciplined investment approach and strategy for building businesses, I am remaining a minority investor in Accurus.”
Financing for the acquisition of Precise Machining & Manufacturing was provided by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Hamilton Lane (www.hamiltonlane.com) provided an equity co-investment alongside Liberty Hall.
© 2013 PEPD • Private Equity’s Leading News Magazine • 11-15-13
