Aside from their offshore operations, Babcock are also selling their onshore interests. Employees were told yesterday that Ancala Partners, a mid-market infrastructure investor was buying Babcock operations in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Sweden and Finland.  The deal is priced at €136.2 million

Excluded are operations in UK, France, Canada and Australia, where Babcock also operates defence businesses.

The disposed businesses operate 232 aircraft across 164 locations in the six countries. The acquisition is conditional upon certain regulatory and other conditions. Completion is expected by the end of the calendar year, subject to satisfaction of the relevant conditions.  For the year ended 31 March 2021 they reported revenues of £407 million and a loss before tax of £177 million, including a £6 million contribution before allocated overheads, exceptional items and other one-off adjustments arising from the Contract Profitability and Balance Sheet review.

As of 31 March 2021, gross assets were £631 million (year ended 31 March 2020 £881 million), with net assets excluding cash of £156m and net lease liabilities of £230 million.

Based on unaudited figures for the year ended 2022, the businesses have recorded revenue of £405 million, and a loss before tax of £10 million (an operating profit contribution of c£13 million before allocated overheads). As of 31 March 2022, based on unaudited figures, gross assets were £635 million and net lease liabilities were £209 million.

Ancala Partners were advised by Travers Smith.  Their Head of Corporate, Spencer Summerfield, commented: “We are delighted to have assisted Ancala with yet another acquisition, strengthening its position in the European infrastructure market and further demonstrating our strong sectoral expertise in infrastructure investments. Carve-out transactions are particularly complex for a number of reasons, and this transaction again highlights our expertise in this area.”

It is unclear whether operations in Mozambique are included – the press release from Travers Smith included it, but there was no mention of it in the letter sent to employees, we are told.