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24 Nov 16. RUAG positioned to expand Asia-Pacific MRO footprint. Swiss firm RUAG aims to leverage capability in a recently opened facility in Malaysia to expand its presence in the Southeast Asian aerospace component support market, a senior company official has told IHS Jane’s. Pirmin Berger, director of marketing and communications at RUAG Aviation, said the company sees an opportunity to provide component maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for about 700 regional military and commercial rotary-wing and turboprop aircraft.
In monetary terms, RUAG is pursuing a market worth around USD160m a year in Southeast Asia, which the company said refers to component MRO opportunities for ATR aircraft and civilian-military helicopters. (Source: IHS Jane’s)
23 Nov 16. Kratos looks to ‘strategic investment’ in unmanned aerial vehicles business. Guy Anderson, London – IHS Jane’s Defence Industry. US mid-tier defence systems organisation Kratos Defense & Security is looking to make strategic investments to bolster its existing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) interests.
The NASDAQ-listed group reported that it is looking to make an additional offering of stock in order to fund expansion.
Kratos said in a statement that it expects “to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes including funding expected growth and strategic investments in the company’s high performance unmanned aerial vehicle business area and other new programmes under contract, and reducing the overall company indebtedness”.
Kratos, which has 2,700 employees, reported sales of USD657.1m for 2015 (down from USD763m in 2014). (Source: IHS Jane’s)
22 Nov 16. L-3 Communications buys UK-based MacDonald Humfrey. U.S. defense contractor L-3 Communications Holdings Inc said it had acquired UK-based MacDonald Humfrey Automation Ltd for 224m ($278m) to strengthen its position in the aviation security market.
MacDonald Humfrey makes automated tray handling systems and airport checkpoint security systems that integrate inputs from CCTV cameras on a single platform.
L-3 makes airport security products, explosives detection systems and whole body imaging systems, among other devices such as military and commercial aircraft flight simulators and global positioning system receivers.
The deal, which comes after the UK’s decision to leave the European Union, will generate sales of about $135m in 2017, L-3 said.
MacDonald Humfrey, which has 350 employees, will operate under L-3’s electronic systems business that accounted for about 41 percent of L-3’s total revenue of $10.47bn in 2015. The purchase price is subject to an upward adjustment of up to £30m, based on MacDonald Humfrey’s post-acquisition performance for the next three years, L-3 said. (Source: Reuters)
22 Nov 16. Babcock expects to benefit from Trump’s pressure on Nato.
Babcock International on Tuesday said it expected to benefit as Nato member states in Europe come under pressure from the US to boost defence spending in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president.
Archie Bethel, who took over as chief executive of the UK defence and support services company in September, said: “Nato members who don’t spend 2 per cent of GDP on defence may come under pressure from the Trump regime to step up spending.”
He added that although it was difficult to predict what either Britain’s planned exitfrom the EU or Mr Trump’s presidency would mean, “defence would play an important part and the main thing for Babcock was not to get distracted by the uncertainty”.
Only five Nato member states — Estonia, Greece, Poland, the UK and the US — spend more than 2 per cent of their GDP on defence, as is required by the alliance. Mr Trump