Amiri acquires aerospace firm BHW
AMIN Amiri’s a2e Venture Catalysts investment firm has bought Wigan-based aerospace parts business BHW, as predicted by TheBusinessDesk.com last week.
The business, which was also targeted by the private equity firm Hilco, supplies components to firms like GKN, Airbus and Bombardier.
More detail has also emerged about a2e’s acquisition of Middleton-based Industrial Latex Compounds several weeks ago.
The £16m turnover company, originally part of the Dow Chemical group, was sold by Bill Fairhurst and John Davison who will continue to be involved. It has 42 staff.
Mr Amiri, who specialises in company turnarounds, hopes to revive BHW’s fortunes after it was hit by uncertainty around its parent Hampson Industries last year.
Dudley-based Hampson put BHW on the market earlier in the year but then scrapped this plan and sold it as administrators were called in last November. It was bought by Northampton-based LNB UK in a £2.3m deal but lenders appointed Duff & Phelps as administrator in April. They made 64 of the firm’s 153 staff redundant.
According to the most recent filed accounts for 2011 it had sales of £11.4m, but Mr Amiri said this had since dropped to £8m-£9m. At March 31, 2011, it had gross assets of 15.1m and recorded a net loss of £3.91m. He is forecasting sales of £12m in 2014 and £14m the following year.
It follows A2E’s acquisition of Coventry-based engineer Lightning Aerospace in August. Mr Amiri said: “I’m trying to build a presence in aerospace because I do think a move to fewer suppliers will create opportunities.
“There’s a move by the big boys like Bombardier and Airbus to rationalise the supply chain, they don’t want to deal with 200 suppliers, they want 50 good ones and as a consequence the smaller less efficient suppliers are going out of business or being taken over, and that will benefit the better players.”
