Cadence Aerospace, a portfolio company of Arlington Capital Partners since November 2017, has acquired Premier Processing, a provider of surface finishing services to companies operating in the aerospace and defense sectors.
Premier’s services include metal finishing, non-destructive testing, priming and painting. The company, founded in 2009 and led by President Brad Hart, operates a 36,000 square foot facility in Wichita, Kansas.
Cadence Aerospace is a supplier of components, assemblies and subassemblies to manufacturers of aircraft, aerostructures, aeroequipment, engine, and other commercial aerospace and defense platforms.
The company has specific capabilities with difficult-to-machine geometries, hard metal alloys, and very large aerostructures. Customers of Cadence are major OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers and include Boeing, Airbus, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin and United Technologies. Cadence, led by CEO Thomas Hutton, has operations in California, Arizona, Washington, Massachusetts and Mexico and is headquartered in Anaheim, California.
“The acquisition of Premier allows us to significantly expand Cadence’s key capability set into the attractive special processing market, which has been a long-standing investment focus for both Arlington Capital and Cadence,” said Peter Manos, a managing partner at Arlington Capital. “Furthermore, we plan to invest significantly to further expand Premier’s special processing capabilities and will work with Brad and his team to roll-out special processing capabilities across the broader Cadence footprint.”
The buy of Premier Processing is the third add-on acquisition completed by Cadence and follows the November 2019 acquisition of the OEM division of B&E Group, a Massachusetts-based maker of complex and difficult-to-machine engine components for aerospace and defense customers; and the September 2018 acquisition of Perfekta, a Kansas-based provider of large structures (bulkheads, spars and beams), and hard metal and aluminum components used in the aerospace, defense, and space end-markets.
“The addition of Premier significantly enhances Cadence’s strategic profile by further positioning the combined business as a highly differentiated and vertically integrated provider of precision manufacturing,” said Bilal Noor, a vice president at Arlington Capital. “This acquisition will boost Cadence’s margins, decrease lead times while improving quality and service, and position Cadence as a ‘one-stop-shop’ for its customers.”
Arlington Capital was founded in 1999 and has completed over 90 acquisitions since its inception. The Chevy Chase, Maryland-based firm is currently investing out of Arlington Capital Partners V LP, a $1.7 billion fund that closed in June 2019.
© 2020 Private Equity Professional | February 20, 2020
