QinetiQ has reached an agreement to acquire Air Affairs in Australia for $53 million.
QinetiQ has also reached an agreement to sell QinetiQ Space in Belgium to Redwire Space Europe for a cash consideration of €32 million.
"Following the announcement in August of the acquisition of Avantus in the US, the two transactions announced today further demonstrate our strategy and capital allocation policy in action: the proceeds from a non-core asset releases capital to reinvest in a more strategically aligned business to support and drive our continued focus to build an integrated global defence and security company, delivering growth and good shareholder returns," the company said in a statement.
"The acquisition of Air Affairs is an exciting step to further build and accelerate QinetiQ in Australia, growing our test and evaluation (T&E) and threat representation capability globally."
Air Affairs is an Australian defence services company specialising in air threat representation, T&E, unmanned targets and mission rehearsal. Air Affairs provides targets and training services, and electronic warfare capabilities to the ADF, as well as aerial surveillance and reconnaissance in support of government firefighting efforts.
It owns and operates a fleet of special mission aircraft and maintains an advanced manufacturing and engineering facility providing design, manufacture and certification operations. Air Affairs is headquartered in Nowra, New South Wales.
In the 12 months to 30 June 2022, Air Affairs delivered $43m revenue and EBITDA of A$5 million.
“Following our announcement to acquire Avantus in the US in August, the acquisition of Air Affairs in Australia is a further exciting opportunity to accelerate our growth and reinforces our market leading position in test and evaluation, and air threat representation globally. Today’s acquisition and disposal announcement reinforces the focus of our growth strategy on our six distinctive offerings in our three home countries, delivering mission critical solutions for our customers," Steve Wadey, Group Chief Executive Officer of QinetiQ, said.