Advent launches break-up of UK aerospace jewel Ultra Electronics
Private equity group Advent International has begun the breakup of cutting-edge British aerospace group Ultra Electronics.
The US group has sold Ultra’s leading forensics division to a Texas-based group called Leeds Online.
Advent acquired Ultra, a member of the FTSE 250 index, in a £2.6 billion deal in June 2021.
But the acquisition only took place last year after intense scrutiny, which examined how the sale to the US firm would affect Britain’s national security.
Ultra was considered a strategically important company as its work included making sonobuoys to hunt enemy submarines and technology used in F-35 fighter planes.
Flight risks: Ultra’s work includes building sonobuoys to hunt enemy submarines and technology used in F-35 fighter jets (pictured)
Advent had already come under criticism for the rapid collapse of another British defense company, Cobham, which it bought for £4 billion in 2019.
Ultra’s ballistic forensics business was previously put up for sale by Advent as it was not considered a core part of the company.
Its world-class technology is used by police forces and crime agencies in 80 countries to solve gun-related crime by analyzing bullets in detail and putting the information into a database. This enables users to link ‘cold cases’ and crimes committed with the same gun. Leads Online, which provides data and intelligence tools to law enforcement agencies, did not disclose how much it paid for the forensics division.
This sale will raise fears that Advent could break up the company further.
Despite promising to be a ‘long-term investor’, Advent created Cobham, which pioneered air-to-air refueling technology, within 18 months of the acquisition.
This is a typical business model for private equity firms, which is why many defense experts and lawmakers criticized the sale.
Former First Sea Lord, Lord West of Spithead, previously said the sale of Ultra to Advent could leave Britain at the mercy of the navies of Russia and China as submarine warfare looks set to become the next ‘major theater of war’.
Ultra’s history dates back to 1920, when it began as a small electronics factory in West London.
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
