Cobham Aviation Services Australia to be sold

Boston-based private equity firm Advent International is moving to sell off specialist operator Cobham Aviation Services Australia – Regional (JTE, Adelaide) and has hired investment bank Macquarie Capital to oversee the sale and seek out potential buyers, sources have told The Australian Financial Review.

A deal could be worth in excess of AUD1.5 billion Australian dollars (USD1.1 billion), the insiders said.

Advent, which also owns the Australian carrier’s parent, the British defence and aerospace company Cobham Group, would conduct an auction in two parts over the coming months, the sources claimed without elaborating. Advent acquired Cobham in January 2020.

Cobham Aviation Services Australia – Regional, formerly JetEx, has both a charter business and fly-in fly-out (FIFO) and special missions operations, and it is understood that it is the special missions ops, including airborne surveillance and search and rescue, that are the most lucrative.

Bankers at Macquarie Capital have reportedly sent a sale flyer to interested parties pointing to the business’s apparent resilience and its exposure to essential services.

Cobham Aviation Services Australia Pty Ltd posted AUD368 million (USD265 million) in revenue and AUD87.2 million (USD62.8 million) in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) for the year to December 2020, with assets worth AUD407 million (USD293 million), according to accounting data.

The ch-aviation fleets advanced module shows that Regional currently operates four ARJ-100s, one ARJ-85, one BAe 146-300, five DHC-8-Q400s, three ERJ 190-100ARs, and one ERJ 190-100LR, all of which are wet-leased to Cobham Aviation Services Australia – Airline Services, a former Cobham Group unit which was acquired by Qantas Group in 2020. Regional also operates four BAe 146-300(QT)s on behalf of Qantas Freight. All of the aircraft are dry-leased except for the BAe Systems equipment.