Investindustrial  (50.1%) and KKR (49.9%) will sell  helicopter emergency transport services company Avincis to engineering group Babcock International for an equity value of 920 million pounds (1.1 billion euros) and an enterprise value of  almost 1.7 billion pounds (2 billion euros), that is 14x ebitda for 2013 (revenues were 566 millions) (download here  the press release),
Babcock was in exclusive talks with Avincis last November in order to buy a minority stake valuing the group around 1.5 billion pounds (1.8 billion euros). The deal didn’t go ahead and the two private equity shareholders invited banks to pitch for an initial public offering at the London Stock Exchange last month that could value the firm at up to 2 billion pounds (more than 2 billion euros) including debt  (see a previous post of BeBeez).
The acquisition will be funded by Babcock through a fully underwritten rights issue of 5 new ordinary shares at 790 pence each for every 13 existing ordinary shares, raising approximately 1.1 billion pounds, before expenses (download here the press release).
Avincis group has been built by Italian private equity firm Investindustrial since 2005, together with  KKR since 2010, acquiring Italian companies Elilario, Elidolomiti and Helitalia; the Spanish company Inaer, the British Bond and finally Australian Helicopters and Norsk Helikopterservice. Andrea Bonomi’s Investindustrial bought control of Elilario in 2005 when the enterprise value was 205 million euro. In Spring 2010 KKR bought its stake in Inaer Group valuing the group 700 million euro, i.e. 9.3x 2009 ebitda. Inaer Group closed 2010 with 338 million euro of revenues from 302 millions in 2009 and with a 104 million euro ebitda from 79 millions in 2009. Today Avincis group runs a fleet of 370 helicopters and planes and has an order book of approximately 2.3 billion euros, as at 31 December 2013.
