08 Nov 09. Northrop Grumman has agreed to sell TASC, its advisory services division, for $1.65bn to a private equity group, General Atlantic and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, in the latest sign of life in leveraged buy-outs. The deal was viewed as one benchmark to gauge the health of the private equity industry and comes on the heels of this year’s biggest leveraged buy-out deal. Last week, TPG Capital and
Canada Pension Plan struck a $5.2bn deal to buy IMS Health, a provider of prescription-drug data. Northrop, one of the largest US defence contractors, will net $1.1bn in cash, which it will use to fund a stock repurchase, the company said. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. The sale was also designed to comply with new organisational conflict-of-interest rules, said Ronald Sugar, chairman and chief executive of Northrop Grumman. TASC is part of Northrop Grumman’s Information Systems sector and advises the US military. It has about 5,000 employees. The division expects 2009 revenue of about $1.6bn. (Source: FT.com)
12 Nov 09. Azure Dynamics Corporation (TSX: AZD) reported its third quarter financial results for the period ending September 30, 2009. The Company also provided an update on product development activities. “While the automotive and commercial vehicle industries struggled along with the rest of the economy to recover during the quarter, we saw definite signs of improvement and opportunity,” said Scott Harrison, Azure Chief Executive Officer. “Interest from our current and prospective customers picked up significantly and several new orders that had been on hold were released late in the quarter and into the fourth quarter. We see that trend continuing to improve as we move closer to theend of the year.”
Harrison said that interest in fuel efficient green products continues to mushroomin the commercial vehicle industry and that as federal stimulus funds are released he expects more companies and municipalities to take advantage of them to order vehicles equipped with Azure technology.
“It’s clear that we have the right products for today’s market and as we continue to amass on-the-road experience and customer understanding of our unique product benefits, the market is responding,” said Harrison. “Our more than two decades of development work in alternative vehicle transportation systems is finally starting to pay off.” Subsequent to the quarter end, Azure announced significant advancements for each of its core technologies. Revenue for the third quarter of 2009 totalled $3.2m compared to $1.3min the third quarter of 2008. For the nine months ended September 30, 2009, revenue totalled $5.0m compared to $5.1m in the same period a year ago. Net loss for the third quarter of 2009 was $5.7m, or $(0.01) cents per share, compared to a loss of $8.3m or $(0.03) cents per share in the third quarter of 2008. Net loss for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 was $19.8m, or $(0.05) per share, compared to a loss of $24.3m or $(0.08) per share in the same period a year ago. Before contributions, the Company’s engineering, operations and product development expenses for the quarter totalled $3.3m (including $1.2m in product development costs), compared to $4.9m for the same period in 2008 (including $2.7m in product development costs). For the first nine months of 2009, the Company’s engineering and R&D expenses totalled $10.4m (including $3.2m in product development costs), compared to $15.5m in the same period of 2008 (including $8.5m in product development expenses). As of September 30, 2009, the Company’s net cash and cash equivalents totalled $5.3m, and working capital totalled $11.1m, compared to cash and cash equivalents of $21.2m, and working capital of $33.6m, as of September 30, 2008. Revenue for the third quarter increased significantly and the company is in the process of completing delivery of several previously announced orders for which it expects to receive payment duri