Survitec £280m sale to complete
THE long-running sale of Survitec, the manufacturer of survival and military equipment, is set to be completed in the next 24 hours.
US buyout firm Warburg Pincus will be the new owner of the company, which has been owned by the Manchester officer of Montagu Private Equity since 2004. Another private equity firm, Permira, was the early favourite to buy the business.
The price tag for Survitec is understood to be just over £280m and will represent a healthy return for Montagu, which has invested to internationalise the business and to source product in the Far East.
Headquartered in Belfast and with a site on Merseyside, Survitec supplies the large inflatable tents being in disaster areas such as Haiti. It also supplies the British and American armies in Afghanistan with high-tech gear such as the anti-G suits used by helicopter and fighter pilots.
Turnover at the firm, which has more than 1,000 staff internationally, has risen from £90m to more than £150m in the last three years.
Montagu, which has been advised by the Manchester office of NM Rothschild and a legal team from Hammonds, first looked at selling the business before the recession, but with the credit crunch wrecking the buyout market, was forced to sit tight.
