Defence supplier sells airport systems business for £22m

Defence supplier Ultra Electronics has sold its airport systems business in a multi-million pound deal.

The company, which has operations in Birmingham and Staffordshire, has agreed to sell the division to ADB SAFEGATE for a total consideration of £22m, of which £2m is deferred.

The deferred payment will be made following the transfer of certain commercial contracts.

Ultra said cash from the deal, which is expected to complete at the end of January, will be retained and used for general corporate purposes.

Airport Systems provides specialised IT software solutions to improve the operational performance of airports and airlines.

Its solutions are installed in around 150 airports and are in service with 100 airlines internationally.

For the year to the end of December 2017, the Airport Systems business recorded revenues of £18.9m and operating profit of £3.2m after allocation of central overheads.

Simon Pryce, chief executive of Ultra, said: “Although Airport Systems has been a part of Ultra for some time, it has little customer, process or technology commonality with the rest of the group.

“As part of our focus on long term sustainable value creation and after conducting an appropriate process, we have therefore concluded that a sale of Airport Systems to ADB SAFEGATE is the best long term solution for Airport Systems customers, employees and other stakeholders and represents good value for Ultra.”