L3Harris to sell commercial aviation business

Four months on from closing one big-ticket acquisition, L3Harris Technologies is going back to the divestiture leg of its strategy that involves finding new owners for businesses no longer seen as in the core.

The latest move on that front sees L3Harris agree to sell its commercial aviation solutions business to TJC, the private equity firm formerly known as The Jordan Company.

TJC will pay an initial $700 million in cash for the unit known as CAS and a potential $100 million earnout if certain financial targets are met in 2023 and 2024, L3Harris said Monday. All parties involved expect to close the transaction in the first half of 2024, of which L3Harris will use the proceeds for debt repayment.

L3Harris’ CAS business employs approximately 1,450 people and touts its core focus areas as including pilot training, flight data analytics, avionics, and air mobility products and services.

The CAS transaction agreement also includes the sale of a surveillance joint venture L3Harris is a part of and is subject to a right of first refusal by TJC.

Morgan Stanley and Moelis & Company are working as financial advisers to L3Harris, which is also looking to Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as legal adviser. J.P. Morgan is the financial adviser to TJC, whose legal adviser is Kirkland & Ellis LLP.

L3Harris completed its acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne in July and the purchase of Viasat's secure data product business known as Link 16 in January.

Divestitures have also featured prominently for L3Harris since the company's launch in 2019 after the merger of Harris Corp. and L3 Technologies.