EVERETT — After three years of dramatic growth, Aviation Technical Services is still looking to expand. And it has a new investor that can help cover the costs.
A New York-based private equity firm, JLL Partners, bought into the company, replacing some shareholders looking to divest.
The deal did not affect the company’s ownership structure, said ATS CEO Matt Yerbic, who is still the largest shareholder. “The management team hasn’t changed.”
That team has led the company through rapid growth. ATS has opened or bought facilities in Kansas City, Moses Lake and near Dallas.
“We’ve effectively doubled the business in the last three years” in terms of employees and revenue, he said.
The privately held company does not disclose its revenue. It has about 1,500 workers in Washington — at Paine Field and Moses Lake — and about 400 in Missouri and Texas.
Yerbic led a group of local investors who bought the company from a Sydney, Australia-based investment bank, Macquarie Group, in 2013. The new owners included Yerbic, other individual investors, Wells Fargo, NewSpring Capital of Radnor, Pennsylvania, and Greenpoint Technologies of Kirkland, which provides interior design and fabrication for Boeing Business Jets.
The terms of that sale have never been made public. In 2007, Macquarie Group bought ATS from Goodrich for $58.4 million.
This year, NewSpring, Greenpoint Technologies and some individual investors sold their shares. JLL Partners has taken their place in the group.
Yerbic declined to say the value of shares that changed hands. However, Rhode Island-based Citizens Bank provided $80 million in short-term financing to facilitate the exchange.
Given the recent growth and with more expected, “that’s driven the need for us to look at our long term strategic plan and partners,” Yerbic said.
ATS provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services for commercial airliners. In other words, it tears apart airplanes and puts them back together as good as — or even better than — new.
The company opened a new facility in Moses Lake in Central Washington in 2013. Last year, it opened a Midwest location in Kansas City and it bought Texas Air Composites, which specializes in working with composite materials.
“Right now, we have plenty of things to think about,” Yerbic said.
That includes getting the Kansas City operation completely up and running.
After that, “we’re actively considering areas where our customers need support,” he said.
JLL Partners’ investment gives ATS “ample resources” for further growth, Kevin Hammond, a managing director at JLL, said in a statement on the firm’s website.
Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.
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