General Dynamics To Buy Jet Aviation

By Charles Alcock

August 19, 2008
FBOs, Maintenance and Modifications

General Dynamics, parent company of Gulfstream Aerospace, today agreed to pay approximately $2.25 billion to buy Jet Aviation from the Permira Funds private equity group. Subject to antitrust legal approval, General Dynamics’ acquisition of all Jet Aviation stock should be complete by year-end.

Permira bought Jet Aviation in October 2005 for an undisclosed sum (understood to be about $700 million) from its private shareholders, mainly the Swiss Hirschmann family. Earlier this year, there were rumblings that Permira intended to resell the company, but neither Permira nor Jet Aviation would confirm this.

Jet Aviation will operate as an independent business unit of the General Dynamics Aerospace group. Zurich-based Jet Aviation will continue to use its own brand name and that of the Midcoast Aviation maintenance chain, which it acquired in March 2006.

According to a General Dynamics spokesman, the U.S. group sees the acquisition of Jet Aviation as a prime opportunity to give its existing flight-support business a global dimension to supplement the six U.S. bases of its General Dynamics Aviation Services subsidiary. Jet Aviation has 26 facilities throughout Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia.

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