Hartenberg enters aviation business – acquires one of the largest independent MRO providers in Europe
November 14, 2017
Hartenberg will acquire a 50% stake in Avia Prime (the „Company”, or „ Avia Prime”), sole owner of Linetech S.A. and Adria Airways Tehnika d.d. The transaction will be completed after the approvals of respective competition offices.
Linetech S.A. provides base and line MRO services with focus on narrow-body passenger Boeing and Embraer aircrafts. It operates hangar facilities in 2 locations in Poland (Katowice and Rzeszów) with area of cca. 17,500 m2 or 10 slots for C-type size planes (i.e. Boeing 737/Airbus A320). Line maintenance services are provided on 7 airports in Poland and additional seasonal locations in other European countries according to clients’ needs.
Adria Airways Tehnika d.d. is a Slovenian line and base MRO provider with specialization on narrow-body passenger Airbus and Bombardier aircrafts. For Bombardier it is the sole certified service centre for Europe. It is based in Ljubljana with total hangar capacity of 3 slots for C-type planes or cca. 6,500 m2. Adria Airways Tehnika started its operations in the 1960s and during over 50 years of maintenance has built its top market reputation. It was acquired in 2015 by Avia Prime and serves as a sister company to Linetech since then.
The Company employs more than 700 highly skilled technical professionals, and since 2002 the Company has completed more than 1 750 heavy maintenance inspections or repairs, mostly for narrow-body Airbus (320 family), Boeing (737 family), Embraer, and Bombardier aircrafts. A significant portion of hangar space was built over the last few years, including state-of-the-art facilities in Rzeszow, which can already accommodate wide body aircrafts (e.g. Boeing 777). It has a diversified portfolio of clients including Swiss, Lufthansa, EasyJet, Wizz Air, Enter Air, Travel Service.
Hartenberg founder and co-owner Jozef Janov adds: “We see a great potential with this investment. The aviation industry is growing dynamically and a new generation of aircrafts is just coming to service. Both companies Linetech and Adria are very well prepared for this growth and modernization with highly skilled team and modern facilities. We also believe in good cooperation with existing management and with founders, who will remain in the Company with a significant shareholding stake. Our intention is to support new investment initiatives of both companies and we hope to continue with the impressive growth from recent years.”
“By teaming up with a financial investor we will gain the possibility to finance our future investment plans. Our core strategy will remain focus on MRO, where we would like to build up and increase market position on the European market”, said Krzysztof Pietkun, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
Avia founder and CEO Piotr Kaczor added: “Strong financial background of our partner will support our ambitious development and innovations plans. Shortly we will start to service the new generation aircrafts such as Boeing 737Max, Airbus A320Neo, Boeing787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350. Currently we are increasing our capacity by building new hangars and recruiting new qualified technicians. In next 2 years, in order to meet the growing demand from our clients and leasing companies, we plan to increase significantly workforce and scale of our operations”.
In the transaction, Avia was advised by CAG (M&A, transaction, financial advisory) and Gessel (legal, structuring). Hartenberg was advised by Krassowski (legal) and Deloitte (financial, tax).