Restructuring Advisory

Sales secures aerospace supply chain jobs

FRP deal sees 126 roles saved in Bristol and Durham

Background

APVE Investment Ltd, a Bristol-based aerospace and precision engineering group that included Airbus, Megellan, FigeacAero and SAC in China among its client base, saw a 60 per cent reduction in orders as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Shareholders had been funding the operations of the group including Avon Valley Precision Engineering, Redcliffe Precision, and AVPE Durham, but with cashflow problems and a slower than hoped for recovery in trade, further funding was not available. With the group unable to meet payroll requirements over the Christmas period, FRP’s Restructuring Advisory team were engaged to assist the group’s management and key stakeholders.

Action

At the time of FRP’s instruction, the group had loan and finance facilities with more than a dozen different institutions. Our Restructuring Advisory team immediately engaged with key stakeholders alongside the group’s management to secure support for wages due that week, while a strategy for a sale process was prepared. Intensive forecasting and planning over the Christmas period resulted in a strategy being presented to the group’s many funders in the first week of January. Having secured support of the group’s primary lenders for a period of limited trading, the team then began an M&A process.

Outcome

FRP’s Restructuring Advisory team were appointed Joint Administrators and completed the pre-pack sales of the business and assets of Avon Valley Precision Engineering, and Redcliffe Precision, to Broadway Engineering Ltd. The acquisition by the precision machine components manufacturer, which operates as part of the supply chain for Rolls Royce, safeguarded 75 jobs across the two businesses.

The Joint Administrators also completed the pre-pack sale of the shares of north east-based subsidiary AVPE Durham Ltd to Altec Engineering Ltd. The deal, a solvent transaction, saw the specialist CNC manufacturer and all 51 roles come back under the ownership of Altec Engineering, which had previously sold the business.

126

126 jobs

The total number of jobs preserved in the aviation supply chain by the AVPE deals.

Related team

Andrew Sheridan

Andrew Sheridan

  • Consultant
  • Restructuring Advisory
  • Bristol

Jonathan Dunn

Jonathan Dunn

  • Partner
  • Restructuring Advisory
  • Bristol