Advent creates defense photonics business in $400M acquisition
Gettyimages.com/ Aitor Diago
By
Nick Wakeman
The private equity group is forming a standalone company through this carve-out transaction with Coherent Corp.
Coherent Corp. has agreed to sell its defense and aerospace business to the private equity firm Advent International for approximately $400 million.
Coherent specializes in photonics and the sale is part of the company’s strategy to focus its portfolio on its core growth markets such as data centers, communications and industrial sectors.
The business being sold to Advent designs and manufactures optical and laser systems for defense usage. The unit has 550 employees spread across 10 sites.
“Coherent’s aerospace and defense business is an exceptional business with a distinguished heritage in pioneering optical and laser technology for the world’s most demanding applications,” Shonnel Malani, managing partner at Advent, said in a release Thursday. “This acquisition is complementary to our existing investments in the sector and underscores our commitment to investing in mission-critical national security technologies.”
The management team at Coherent's defense business will continue to run it after the transaction closes later this quarter. The business will have a new name, yet to be announced.
Advent's agreement to buy the Coherent defense business follows other acquisitions across the defense market such as Cobham, Ultra Electronics and Maxar Technologies.
Malani said Advent will also invest in the unit’s research-and-development efforts.
Covington & Burling worked as a legal adviser to Advent.