Dubai Aerospace bags Landmark Aviation

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), a United Arab Emirates-based global aerospace manufacturing and services major, has acquired Landmark Aviation in a $1.9 billion deal that also included Standard Aero of Winnipeg, Canada. The company had made a bid for the two firms some time ago. (See: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise: A primer).

Landmark and Standard Aero provide aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services in the US, Canada and other countries. Both businesses were owned by the Carlyle Group, a private equity investment fund based in Washington DC. DAE plans to combine Landmark and Aero in its engineering division to be based in Tempe, Arizona.

Landmark is the second-largest general aviation facility operator in the US. It has about 2,500 employees at 42 sites, including 60 at its Tempe headquarters. The Carlyle group set up the company in 2005 to combine a disparate group of fixed-base operators, and bring them under one brand.

DAE plans to sell Landmark's airport-services business, which has about 1,100 employees, and focus purely on aircraft maintenance.

After the sale, its engineering division will have a global aviation services network of 12 primary facilities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Singapore and Australia, with 3,900 employees and an annual revenue of $1.3 billion.

"This is an important step in the business and investment relationship between Dubai, the UAE and the United States," Dubai Aerospace Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said in a statement. Bob Johnson, former chairman and chief executive officer of Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix Arizona, heads Dubai Aerospace.