Eaton [ETN] on Monday said it has agreed to acquire the Mission Systems business of Britain’s Cobham for $2.8 billion, a deal it said boosts its defense business and adds to its capabilities in fuel and environmental systems.
The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2021.
“Cobham Mission Systems’ highly complementary products and strong position on growing defense platforms will enhance our fuel systems business and position our Aerospace business for future growth,” Heath Monesmith, president and chief operating officer of Eaton’s Industrial Sector, said in a statement.
Cobham is a portfolio company of the U.S.-based private equity firm Advent International
, which acquired the aerospace and defense contractor in January 2020 for $5 billion.
Eaton is a $21 billion power management company based in Ireland with an operational headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio. In the aerospace sector, the company makes and sells engine solutions, fuel systems, fluid and air distribution products, hydraulics, interconnect solutions and motion controls.
Cobham Mission Systems (CMS), which is based in the United Kingdom and also has operations at several locations in the U.S., provides solutions for air-to-air refueling, fuel tank inerting, life support, space propulsion, weapons carriage and missile actuation. The company has about 2,000 employees, 1,300 in the U.S. and 700 in the U.K., and its largest customers are in the U.S.
Easton said its $2.3 billion purchase price for CMS includes $130 million in tax benefits. Excluding those benefits, the purchase price is about 14 times CMS’s 2020 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and 13 times estimated 2021 EBITDA.
Since acquiring Cobham in January 2020, Advent International has divested about 40 percent of the business, including CMS. Last fall Draken International bought Cobham’s Aviation Services U.K. division and TranDigm Group [TDG] acquired Cobham’s aerospace connectivity business for $965 million.