Janes Capital Partners | Case Studies

Highly Successful Defense Exit Amid Growing Sequestration Concerns

Written by Stephen Perry | Nov 21, 2023

Janes Capital Partners served as Exclusive Financial Advisor to Composite Engineering, Inc. (“CEi”) in its sale to Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Inc. CEi is a prime contractor that specializes in the design, manufacture, test and operation of aerial target drones, unmanned systems and composite structures. CEi’s customer base includes: the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. Army and the Office of the Secretary of Defense, along with a growing portfolio of foreign militaries and is the recognized global leader in providing high performance and threat representative aerial target drones.

THE CHALLENGE

Janes Capital Partners was retained by Composite Engineering (CEi), a prime contractor, developer and manufacturer of high performance, advanced aerial targets and UAV platforms for the U.S. and foreign militaries. The sale process coincided with growing concerns about potential cuts to the U.S. DoD budget and declining spending by foreign militaries.

THE SOLUTION

Janes Capital Partners ran an aggressive M&A process targeting global A&D primes and leading private equity groups. We assisted management in developing an attractive and credible growth plan to address and mitigate concerns over the threat of potential DoD budget sequestration. In addition, our industry focus and extensive knowledge of the Aerospace & Defense industry enabled us to clearly articulate the highly-complex and valuable attributes of this unique business.

 

THE RESULTS

CEi was successfully sold to Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (“KTOS”) for total consideration of $165 million.