Marshall Aerospace, the British military maintenance and special mission conversion specialist with roots going back to 1909, has been bought by the private equity investor AURELIUS, according to the company.
The acquisition completed on 8 October and separates Marshall Aerospace from the wider Marshall Group, leaving it as an independent mid-tier British aerospace and defence company.
Bob Baxter, the chief executive of Marshall Aerospace, said: “This change of ownership is an important new chapter for Marshall Aerospace as an independent mid-tier British aerospace and defence company.
“In AURELIUS, we have found an owner that recognises the strength of our capabilities and the importance of the work we are delivering for our customers. Just as importantly, they have the expertise and resources to back our next phase of growth and capitalise on emerging opportunities as the defence industry continues to transform.”
The company works in military maintenance, repair and overhaul, applied aerospace engineering and advanced manufacturing, supporting operators from the Royal Norwegian Air Force to the US Marine Corps and acting as a supplier to Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Thales.
Marshall holds a multi-year agreement covering entry into service and sustainment for twelve C-130J aircraft bought by the Turkish Ministry of National Defence, and a fourteen-year contract from Thales to produce sonar modules for the Royal Navy.
The C-130 is the aircraft the company is best known for, having supported the Hercules since 1966 and earned a series of world-first accreditations and permissions on the type. Its design organisation approvals let it plan, integrate and certify complete programmes, from avionics upgrades to bespoke special mission conversions.
AURELIUS describes itself as a global private equity investor with an operational approach, and says the combination gives Marshall a platform for its next phase of growth and opportunities to contribute to defence programmes important to Britain and its allies.
Marshall Aerospace had earlier planned to move its operations from Cambridge Airport to a new facility at Cranfield under a relocation announced several years ago.
Not sure what the answer is with these small defence companies an PE ownership. Government golden shares seem to have worked well at RR,BAE and OneWeb so perhaps that’s the best model moving forward.
I mean France owns oneweb, not sure that is a proof of concept.
The issue is we flogged off all our national assets in the 80s and now that means they are all owned by overseas firms, as global competitors are just bigger.
Golden shares only go so far in protecting assets. The choice is either heavy public sector or multinational capitalism, there isn’t really a middle ground.
No, France doesn’t own one web. 🤦
Suggest you google one webs corporate structure.
I mean it’s parent company that owns most of the shares is listed in France, how can that not be french?
The French government owns part of the shares as does the British government as do Chinese and Indian conglomerates. The British government retains a golden share in one web which is a British company and the UK retains exclusive military application rights over the constellation so no it’s not owned by France.
It is 100% owned by Eutelsat Group, minus one share which is the special share.
Eutelsat Group largest shareholder is the french government with around 27% including local government. Another 24% is owned by french companies. Resulting in over half owned by France.
So yes it’s french.
And the buy out by Eutelsat Group happened after the UK buyout, so not really sure what the special share actually guarantees. I doubt it’s public knowledge.
• The French State (via Agence des participations de l’État / Bpifrance): 29.65%
• Bharti Space Limited (Bharti Enterprises): 17.88%
• UK Government (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology): 10.89%
• CMA CGM Participations: 7.46%
• SoftBank Group Capital: 7.27%
• Fonds Stratégique de Participations (FSP): 4.99%
• Free float and other public/institutional investors: ~21.86%
That’s the actual ownership of EUTELSAT, can you show me how that means one web is owned by France.
No, you said it’s owned by France.
Ah yes, those ex RAF sunset capability Hercules that were past it but happily bought by the Turks.
Sunset is a lovely euphemism, it makes it sound like they were already semiretired and just resting quietly in a corner so it’s no bother getting rid of them..
Liebour allowing this. Next allowing Germany into Tempest delaying the project by years and giving away UK share of work….oh wait they have already done that too.
Not yet they haven’t although Burnham is open for it to happen!got to keep our European ‘partners’ happy after all don’t we?🙄
He thinks it is a bargaining chip with the Germans for his EU negotiations.
The French will stuff it up anyways even if EU central doesn’t.
The french want the UK back. It will be our own polictical parties that will mess it up. We have conservatives/reform/restore massively anti Europe, and chances are they will get into power again between any subsequent referendum and negotiated entry and will deliberately sabotage it.
In regards to tempest, there is already fractures forming in the joint venture because the UK refuses to commit the funds, both before and after the election, so both parties as bad as each other in that regards.
We have far more problems internally, to worry about other nations.
More problems that the ex BND head being a spy or the AdF likely to do well in elections or La Pen doing well in French elections….
Hmme I’m not sure things are a lot better elsewhere….
The only thing rosier is Germany’s low debt pile.
Too right; France, Germany and Spain want us back in the EU asap. If Pedro Sanchez’ gamble for a snap election doesn’t come off, 2027 could see France, Germany, Spain and arguably Italy with far right, authoritarian, Russia leaning governments. Action replay of 1939 – 45 anyone? Britain with valiant Norway and the support of Canada defending Poland, Ukraine and saving Europe? Kemi Badenoch’s quip about a battle for the soul of the UK is almost correct; the battle is for the soul of Europe, initially without help from the US.
Pootin and Xi must be laughing themselves silly at having split the Tangerine Toddler from Europe and destabilised Germany with high energy prices. I mean only the Germans could carry on shutting down nuclear in the face of this……France destabilised via its unsupportable debt burdens……UK unable to do anything due to the Corbynista legacy which the Conservatives were forced to counter with ££££ so we are now totally unable to find the ££££ for defence….
Looked at in the round the change is unbelievable really.
Yeh, complete turnaround. End of the world in 2012. Cameron promises EU referendum in Jan 2013. Those Mayans knew a thing or two. 🙂
Fucking Mayan death cults screwing everyone over.. bastards.
Clever with the calendar though; based on 260 days, the gestation period of the human baby. Tricky fitting that into the lunar month and the sidear year, let alone the Saros cycle, the earth’s nutation and precession. They were very good astronomers. But as you say they were not so good with the ripping hearts out sacrifice thing.
They do a good line in pyramids and ball court.. Chichén Itzá is a great place wonderful views from the pyramid. Shame about all the death cult freezes and mass graves of sacrificed children.. the human race is proper sicko really.
Most of the UK wants to be back in the EU so it’s a win win situation
Yawn.
What does that mean in the context of private equity buyouts of companies?
Oops a reply to a reply on the wrong thread lol
I feel much the same about your cimments
Total Rubbish. The biggest cost to any aircraft coming into service is Research & Development. UK needs partners to help with the cost. The Tempest project currently has UK, Italy and Japanese companies involved with Bae as the main partner. Germany engineering will be extremely valuable.
We were very successful in the MRCA project that brought into mass production the Tornado with our partners Germany and Italy. We were extremely successful with the Typhoon project with our partners GERMANY, Italy and Spain. So why not the Tempest with Germany,Italy and Japan.
Do a fact check or is this just a cheap jibe at our current government. Whatever you are showing yourself up as being of limited knowledge. Ow by the way I worked for Bae for a number of years and I can tell you they are happy working with our European partners.
The UK defence journal has some great articles that are most interesting. However the comments section lets it down. I enjoy the articles and in the past the comments were relevant to the article. However it now seems that this post has been highjacked by those who have a gripe about politics. So go to the political sites and there are many. Leave this site to engineers.
This isn’t a site about engineering for engineers, it’s a defence news site and defence is political or at least political adjacent as much as it is engineering adjacent. If you want it solely about engineering I suggest you go to an engineering forum and you can discuss calcs there pal.
If you want to just bash the current government then might I suggest GB News. I have been on this site for some time however only recently has it been subjected to bad language. I have expressed my concerns to the journal and it will be interesting to see their take on it.
I haven’t bashed any government, like you I have been on this site quite a few years but I rarely post. Still I don’t see why you’d think this site should be the sole preserve of engineers and that bad language should be reported, abusive language and you might have a point.
If you’re not an engineer then that’s great. I’m sure you will find the articles interesting and a window into our world. I appreciate your honesty. I don’t want this site to go the same way as many others. Yep I am an aircraft nerd . Nice talking to you .
Private equity is rarely good.
As often as not debt is saddled onto the company being bought, various mechanisms exist such as selling off all of the companies properties to another arm of the “investment” organisation and then leasing them back this fucking money out and into the “investors” grubby pockets.
Before long the company is facing a bleak financial future , but the equity organisation is just a bit richer.
That was meant to say “this sucking”
This!!!!!!
Thus!!!!!!
We can do very little to stop companies like Marshall from being sold to overseas investors but what we should be doing is insisting that most of the profit made by these “defence contractors” stays in the UK and is invested into defence infrastructure, we have companies like Serco and Landmarc who profits go to prop-up the 401K in America, Janes and now Marshall who’s profits end up in Europe. In all of these cases the MoD has little to no influence in who are on the boards of these private investment companies and what their motives are.
This is were Mark Carny’s (Canadian PM) idea of a Resilience Bank is a good way of making sure the profits stay in the country they were generated in. If a company like Marshall was looking for investment then they could get it from this Resilience Bank (supported by all Nato countries) instead of looking for private investment from companies that have little to no over sight.