DAE sells Landmark Aviation business to GTCR for $435m

Dubai: Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) on Wednesday said it has completed the sale of Landmark Aviation's Fixed Base Operations (FBO) business to GTCR, a leading private equity investment firm for $435 million.

The announcement marks the culmination of a plan established by DAE as part of its purchase of Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero in August 2007.

"At that time, DAE announced its intention to divest the Landmark Aviation Airport Services business, which includes 34 fixed base operations, an aircraft sales, charter and management business, and several small maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) operations associated with certain FBO sites in order to concentrate its efforts on the MRO operations of Landmark Aviation and Standard Aero. The sale of the FBO business to GTCR includes the Landmark Aviation name," DAE said.

Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman, managing director, DAE Group, said, "Our goal from the initial stage of the acquisition was to focus on building a global MRO operation and divest the FBO business."

Bob Johnson, CEO of DAE, said, "We appreciate the dedication and hard work of the Landmark FBO team, particularly through the sale process, and expect that GTCR will build the business even further."

Since August 2007, the operations of Landmark Aviation Airport Services and the sale process were overseen by an independent board of trustees.

The new Standard Aero business, a Dubai Aero-space Enterprise (DAE) Engineering company, has $1.4 billion in annual revenues.

It specialises in overhauling, maintaining and refurbishing business and general aviation, air transport, and military aircraft.