The private equity firm Blackstone Group [BX] on Monday said it has agreed to acquire aerospace engine component manufacturer MB Aerospace from another investment firm, Arlington Capital Partners.
Terms of the deal, which is expected to close later this year, were not disclosed. Craig Gallagher, MBAe’s CEO since 2003, and the rest of the company’s management team will remain in place.
Blackstone’s investment “provides us with a huge opportunity to invest in our people and to continue to grow both organically and through acquisition both in the U.S. and in Europe,” Gallagher said in a statement.
For Blackstone, the pending acquisition is its first pure-play aerospace deal.
“MB Aerospace is a best-in-class engine component manufacturing and repair platform, and we look forward to supporting the company as it continues to expand its capabilities during its next phase of growth,” Bruce McEvoy, managing director at Blackstone, said in a statement.
MBAe is a Tier 1 supplier of aerospace engine components serving the major aerospace engine manufacturers, other Tier 1 suppliers, and the U.S. Defense Department. The Britain-based company also has operations in the United States and Poland.
Arlington Capital acquired MBAe in 2013. Since that time, MBAe has acquired two businesses and has exposure to more than 65 platforms. MBAe has over 1,000 employees.
“MB Aerospace has been a blue print Arlington Capital investment,” Peter Manos, managing partner at Arlington Capital, said in a statement. “We partnered with an outstanding management team to be an early consolidator in a large and rapidly growing market with a differentiated product offering. Together, we have built one of the largest independent pure play aero-engine component manufacturers and we look forward to following MB Aerospace’s next chapter of growth.”