Middle-market private equity firm Wynnchurch Capital’s newly formed portfolio company, Heligear Acquisition Holdings, has acquired substantially all of the operating assets of Northstar Aerospace (NSA) and its subsidiaries through court administered insolvency proceedings in both the US and Canada.
Headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Bedford Park, Illinois, the company is a manufacturer of flight-critical and non-flight-critical parts for military and commercial aircraft applications.
The company will continue to operate under the "Northstar Aerospace" name and employ substantially the entire NSA workforce. Prior to the acquisition, NSA was publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
"The message for our customers, suppliers and employees is that Northstar Aerospace is stronger than ever and we are committed to working closely with all key constituents to improve service levels and lower costs for our customers. We are excited and honoured to be a key partner supplier for leading global military aircraft programmes, including the AH-64 Apache Block III, the CH-47 Chinook and the UH-60 Black Hawk. We are proud to be able to support our customers and warfighters around the world," says Dave McConnaughey, the NSA’s new president and chief executive.
Terry Theodore, partner with Wynnchurch, says: "Northstar is a leader and innovator in the aerospace industry and has a decades-old reputation for providing the highest quality products to its customers.We look forward to partnering with Dave McConnaughey and the rest of the Northstar management team to continue driving improvements in the business."
Senior debt financing to support the acquisition was provided by PNC Business Credit, a division of PNC Bank, National Association. Alvarez & Marsal served as transaction advisor to Wynnchurch and Vedder Price P.C. acted as legal counsel to Wynnchurch and NSA.
