The private equity firm AEA Investors earlier this month acquired the defense electronics company API Technologies Corp. from the investment firm J.F. Lehman & Company, which acquired the company in 2016.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. API, which is based in Massachusetts, has about 1,700 employees, 1,800 customers worldwide in defense, aerospace, space and commercial end markets. The company supports more than 200 programs.
API designs and manufactures components and subsystems for radio frequency, microwave and electromagnetic spectrum management applications.
J.F. Lehman said that since acquiring API, it worked with management to “rationalize its product portfolio, augment research and development activities and enhance API’s sales and marketing strategy, resulting in substantial revenue and earnings growth.”
J.F. Lehman’s financial advisors on the deal were Evercore Group LLC and Houlihan Lokey [HLI]. Houlihan Lokey said the interest in API during bidding for the company shows that similar companies could fetch an attractive price.
“The substantial interest garnered from the competitive API process suggests further liquidity potential for other businesses that share API’s characteristics: highly engineered components designed into a strong and diverse portfolio of equipment and programs,” Houlihan Lokey said.