Egeria, an Amsterdam based investment company, has acquired a majority interest in the Irish headquartered MAAS Aviation Group.
The company’s executive management team has retained a minority interest in the company. MAAS Aviation is one of the leading commercial aircraft painting companies in the world with operations in The Netherlands, Germany and the USA. Founding shareholder and Executive Chairman, Darragh Hall exits MAAS Aviation after almost 40 years with the company. The financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed.
MAAS Aviation has achieved significant growth over the last five years and has developed successful partnerships with OEM and airline customers with the company becoming an important service provider to Airbus Group at the latter’s manufacturing facilities in Hamburg, Germany and at its US Final Assembly Line in Mobile, Alabama. In addition, the company repaints aircrafts at dedicated MRO paint shops located at Maastricht Aachen Airport and Woensdrecht in The Netherlands and in Mobile, Alabama. The company benefits from long term customer contracts which provide stability and a foundation on which to build.
As well as painting commercial aircraft, MAAS has also developed expertise in the design and procurement of state-of-the-art paint shops. This capability, combined with its aircraft painting expertise has contributed to the company’s growth in recent years. MAAS’ paint shop infrastructure ranks amongst the best in the world.
The investment by Egeria provides the company with the financial backing and support to enable management to deliver further planned growth and to meet known opportunities driven by the increase in demand for aircraft painting as a result of the macro growth drivers in the global aviation sector.
Egbert Prenger, partner at Egeria, says: “Its expertise and strong market position enables MAAS Aviation to capture the strong potential for growth. We are excited to be part of the company’s future. Egeria takes a lot of comfort from the extent of the company’s long-term client relationships and business with OEM manufacturers as this is clear evidence of the company’s ability to achieve and maintain industry leading standards. We believe that MAAS Aviation, also thanks to its motivated management and skilled staff, has all the ingredients at its disposal to develop considerably over the coming years. As this requires a more extended scope than that of our regular investments, MAAS Aviation will become a part of Egeria Evergreen.”
Tim Macdougald, CEO of MAAS Aviation, says: “The investment by Egeria is a very positive step for the company and provides the backing to invest in the personnel and infrastructure to support its existing operations and more importantly to deliver the company’s future growth plans. The company has achieved significant organic growth in recent years and the time is right to back this up with Egeria’s support which will assist and indeed accelerate further international growth. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Darragh Hall for his contribution to the company he founded almost 40 years ago. Mark Gidman, our group COO, myself and all of our colleagues are excited to have the opportunity to take the company forward.”
Departing majority shareholder and founder Darragh Hall, says: “It has been a real privilege for me to have worked all these years with the team and be part of what MAAS has now become; I cannot overstate the quality and commitment of the staff and current management team who have shaped this business into what it is today, in particular I would like to thank Tim Macdougald, Mark Gidman, Fran Carew and the whole team of wonderful people who get the results week in week out. I am thrilled that the company has in Egeria found a new partner that will allow the company scale even greater heights. Our philosophy has always been to provide quality and the business will follow …… I truly believe the future is bright.”
