Swedish aerospace and defence company, Saab AB, has confirmed that the acquisition of Sensis Corp is complete, following the initial announcement of the planned transaction on 29th June 2011. The cash transaction is believed to have been in the region of $190 million / SEK 1,235 million.

Saab Sensis Corporation is now a wholly owned US subsidiary of Saab Group, and will continue to provide air traffic management (ATM) solutions and surveillance technologies for the commercial and defence aviation sectors. The company employs around 600 staff and operates in over 35 countries, servicing over 60 key customers, 54 of which are major international airports.

The company generated revenues of about MUSD 173 in fiscal year July-June 2009/2010 (MUSD158 in 2008/2009) and EBIT of about MUSD 4.0 in fiscal year July-June 2009/2010 (MUSD 7.2 in 2008/2009).

Saab will now benefit from an enhanced ATM, defence system, radar and sensor portfolio; as well as establishing a strong base in the US from which it can take advantage of high profile/value regional opportunities.

CEO and President of Saab, Håkan Buskhe, commented:

"This acquisition is in line with our ambition to focus on selected markets and grow our core business. Saab Sensis' offering and their strong local presence in the U.S. within radar and sensors and a world-leading position in the Air Traffic Management market is an excellent complement to our operations. In addition, we also see good potential to expand the company's existing product portfolio, leveraging other Saab technology such as our C4I [command, control, computing, communication and intelligence equipment] solutions, to further increase our reach into the U.S. defense market. As a result of the identified significant medium- to long-term operational synergies, as well as from a Sales and Marketing perspective, we believe the acquisition will be value enhancing."

Author: Lee Marriott, Analyst