Specialist manufacturer agrees sale of an American business

Specialist manufacturer Gooch & Housego has sold an American business for $12m (£9.4m).

Boston-based EM4 manufactures optoelectronic components and laser modules, mainly for the US aerospace and defence market.

It has been acquired by an unnamed “US-based global technology company”.

Charlie Peppiatt, chief executive of Gooch and Housego, said the sale was “an important milestone” for the group as it focuses on delivering sustainable margin growth.

EM4 made a pre-tax loss of £0.7m in the year to September 2023, and generated revenues of £13.4m.

“The divestment of EM4 is the result of a carefully considered and ongoing review of our A&D [aerospace and defence] product portfolio,” said Peppiatt.

“The disposal supports the group’s consolidation of our A&D activities into areas where we can offer differentiated products to our customers and enable the group to grow our optical systems business and maximise value creation from accretive optical systems solutions.”

EM4 also manufactured and supplied fused fibre couplers, but this product line has been excluded from the sale and transferred to Gooch & Housego’s Torquay site.

The deal will seed $5.25m (£4.1m) paid up front, with up to $6.75m (£5.3m) to be paid based on performance up to September 2025.

Gooch & Housego is based in Somerset and manufactures photonic components and systems. It acquired EM4 in 2011 for an initial consideration of $12m.