Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment firm, has a thing for business aviation, according to Sanjeev Mehra, the firm’s managing director. Raytheon Aircraft, purchased on March 26 this year, was its most recent acquisition. Investment funds controlled by the Goldman Sachs affiliate Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Canada’s Onex Partners bought the Wichita OEM for $3.3 billion in debt and equity and renamed it Hawker Beechcraft. The purchase made Goldman one of the major players in today’s business aviation market.
Business aviation’s “above average” rate of growth is what makes the industry so attractive, said Mehra. Goldman is making a renewed push into bizav after entering the sector in the 1990s, when IT invested in fractional-service-provider NetJets. Today Goldman and Goldman-controlled funds have been or are major investors in Hawker Beechcraft and NetJets as well as Adam Aircraft, aircraft composites maker Hexcel and avionics test equipment manufacturer Aeroflex. Mehra is chairman of Hawker Beechcraft and serves on Adam Aircraft’s board of directors.
