QinetiQ has announced that it has agreed to acquire 85% of the shares of Inzpire Group, with an agreement to acquire the remaining 15% after two years, for a total consideration of £23.5 million.
Inzpire is a leading provider of operational training and mission systems for military customers in the UK and internationally. Approximately three quarters of its revenue comes from airborne training and evaluation services, primarily for the Royal Air Force.
Steve Wadey, QinetiQ CEO, said:
“Over the past 13 years, Inzpire has become one of the most trusted names in UK defence. This trust is built on their rigorous customer focus, positive culture and their peoples’ extensive experience. Being deeply embedded with their customers, Inzpire provides training and services that are critical to maintaining and building defence capability.
Our investment enhances our overall offer in defence operational training and mission systems, both in the UK and internationally. Defence operational training represents an area of significant growth as customers around the world increasingly recognise the need to enhance their training capabilities cost effectively. The combination of Inzpire and QinetiQ’s capabilities, complemented by our previous acquisitions, creates a leading provider of critical defence training.”
Hugh Griffiths, Inzpire CEO, said:
“We are delighted QinetiQ is becoming our new investor. This transaction will help us accelerate our progress in delivering a “revolution in defence” and our team are hugely excited about the opportunities this tie-up presents.”
Qinetiq.
Another defence asset sold off or cut like countless other examples.
Would the MoD have saved simply keeping it in house?
Yes I’m well aware of DSTL
Made a number of uncivil servants a lot of money.
Oh yes, David Pepper, And all that.
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It’s another British defence company buying out another British defence company . What’s the problem ?
Dear P Tattersall: I think the problem is that its partially a UK company and that a large US Investment firm owns a significant share of the firm. It was originally called Defense Research or something similar years ago and was the research arm of the MoD. It was sold or privatized in a controversial manner. Plus you will see above the comment about uncivil servants refers to the millions of dollars made by the original MoD staff that left the MoD when the company was formed as Qinetiq and sold off. I do believe that there were official inquiries after the sell off regarding possible irregularities by both government and private parties involved as the selling price was purposefully undervalued and contracts new and existing and new products and work which the new company would take over were not disclosed thus when they were the value of the company jumped making hundreds of millions more for the investors and staff. It’s not that Im against making money, just against making money illegally. If this is of interest to you read about SoftBank and there purchase of the UK company A R M (nothing to to with arms though) and then Softbanks sale of A R M to the Chinese. Regards, James
The SoftBank purchase of ARM was bad news from the get go. To me it ranks alongside strategic mistakes like Brown’s dumping of our gold or the privatisation of the energy and telecoms networks or the disruption of the submarine production drumbeat or the mismanagement of North Sea hydrocarbon revenues.
Sir: This matter got far less media attention than it was worthy of, the initial sale should have been stopped, as the company and its IP was a strategic asset, the on sale to the PRC by Softbank must have been planned by them at the time. This is a disastrous policy that the UK governments follow. I imagine that the US is furious about giving the Chinese this massive tech advantage. There is and was plenty of reporting in the “alternative” media (tech media, small media, etc.) about the close association between Softbank and PRC prior to the original sale. You comments above are just further proof of the poor decisions made by successive governments.
One of the things I admire about the French is that it doesn’t matter what colour of the party in power France comes first. We play by the rules and we kicked for it.
The thing we lead the world in in this country is selling off our assets for short term gain (usually to the privileged) boast about it being foreign investment and advertise supposed growth in the economy only for it to be shown within years that longer term we are actually taking an ongoing hit, to add to the loss of the national economic control of the venture. The latest is the results from Cadbury only a few weeks back which has gone from being one of the largest chocolate makers in the World to apparently earning so little money that it is paying less corporation tax to the UK exchequer than my partner’s local cleaning company. So now we know how Kraft planned to pay for the aquisition of a crucial national asset all along. Then there’s Pilkington the world’s largest glass maker at least bevore it’s sale… Does the name even exist now and dont even talk to me about the self destruction of the once dynamic Racal and then they complain that we don’t have enough competition in the defence industry.
Yes. But you have to remember one thing. We are xenophobes. We don’t like foreigners. That’s why we sell everything to, um. foreigners. I wish we less xenophobic like the Continental Europeans who don’t sell their companies to foreigners. Wait a moment……… 🙂
Sir: I don’t include Cadbury as a strategic asset, but close. Your example does show how the UK government is consistently out played by foreign enterprises and has been for generations. As Im currently living and working in the USA and a very long term chocolate expert I can report that US made chocolate is disgusting stuff. No wonder Fruit and Nut no longer tastes the same. I do recall the demise of Pilkingtons and of course Racal. There are many more. Jag. Land Rover, etc.
Carlyle Group was involved in the privatization process but sold out in the stockmarket float and are no longer listed as shareholders
https://www.marketscreener.com/QINETIQ-GROUP-PLC-9590216/company/
Ironically the Bin Laden family were at one time nvestors in Carlyle cue crazy conspiracies
Qinteq is a British owned British run company, doing well, employing 150 British science graduates a ytear and winning business
Some Qinetiq background.
The Defence Research Agency joined DTRE Defence Training Research Establishment to form the DERA. Defence Evaluation Research Agency in the 90s.
DERA was sold off in another government fire sale of our assets and became QibetiQ. The classified sections were retained with Mod, Porton Down, Fort Halstead, Portsdown, and other bits and pieces.
Ironically, the refurbished RAE at Farnborough, which Mod had just spent money on forming the Cody facility, passed straight to Qinetiq.
MoDs most visible current link to Qinetiq is in the LTPA Long Term Partnering Agreement where they operate our Test Ranges and other sites, such as Boscombe Down, which thankfully are still owned by HMG.
I think it is all just symptomatic of a British “naivety” in such matters. At the very least as far back as WWII and the handing over our strategic secrets (computing, RADAR, jet engines etc.) and assets, and the offloading and break-up of our telecomms and other strategic resources to the so-called private sector.
I’m all for private enterprise over state ownership, but there must be limits with strategic resources and capabilities. What other major country would allow unrestricted foreign ownership of its industry, resources, land, housing etc. ….madness!
This manifests itself in all sorts of ways.
The late MP Alan Clark in his very frank dairies notes than when he was Foreign Secretary there were UK civil servants working 24/7 to undermine the British people and interests. Now I don’t want to go all conspiracy theory on everyone, but after this Brexit debacle one could be forgiven to at least start asking questions….
At best it may be for valid (I would argue naive) reasons, but for years many of those in power in the UK have been making policy without recourse to the actual National interest. Even Ted Heath eventually admitted he lied about the UK joining the “Common Market” at the time. He always knew “The Project” was all about the integration of Europe, politically, as one super-state. Big dollar America has also had its own self-interest ways with UK technology too. Let alone the Rooskies, China….
Rant over. Going for a lie down.
Nothing reminds me more of our naughty xenophobia than when I see a train going past with the locomotive wearing the livery of German state railways.
With the rumour that QinetiQ & Thales has pulled out of ASDOT, and QinetiQ now buying Inzpire, how does this now affect the consortium of Leonardo, Top Aces & Inzpire??
The real story about Inzpire and Qinetiq seems to have been lost in parts of this thread. Both are UK companies, based in UK and contributing heavily to the UK. Inzpire in particular is a successful UK SME established by ex-RAF engineers, and all credit to them. Sure, Qinetiq has business outside the UK, and shareholders outside the UK. But it is predominantly UK and has some great innovation and services. Yes, its privatisation was controversial, and those ‘lucky’ enough to have been sat in the right seat when the music stopped undeservedly made a lot of money out of their shareholdings, just like in others such as rail where the politicians and financial advisors mishandled the privatisation. But the current Qinetiq management can’t be blamed for their predecessors’ underserved windfalls, we should instead recognise that both Qinetiq and Inzpire are role models of good UK companies.