Veritas Capital to acquire space component maker

Private equity firm Veritas Capital has agreed to acquire the space systems business of CAES, the company also known as Cobham Advanced Electronic Solutions owned by fellow PE investor Advent International.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but all parties involved said Thursday they expect it to close in the first quarter of 2023.

Advent acquired the U.K.-headquartered aerospace firm Cobham in 2020 for nearly $5 billion. Cobham has since made several moves under that ownership to restructure its portfolio, including this year's divestiture of a special aviation mission business in Australia to Leidos.

Cobham received the U.K. government's approval in July to proceed on its acquisition of Ultra Electronics.

The CAES Space Systems business manufactures radiation hardened components, mission processing, cabling, wave guides, antennas and power management products for government agencies.

Mike Elias, who joined CAES Space Systems last year as senior vice president and division manager, will continue to lead the business under Veritas' ownership alongside the other current leadership team members.

Goldman Sachs and Lazard are acting as financial advisers to CAES. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is acting as legal adviser to Veritas.