Survitec put up for sale by private equity backers

A British manufacturer of hi-tech defence equipment including suits which protect fighter pilots from the effects of extreme gravitational pull is exploring a sale, writes Ben Marlow.

Survitec, which also makes safety and survival equipment, has been put on the block by its private equity backers.

The Belfast-based business, founded in 1920, started out as one of the first makers of life rafts. Survitec, which employs about 1,100 people in countries including Italy, Australia and China, could fetch as much as £500m, industry sources suggest.

Survitec also supplies the British and American armies in Afghanistan with gear such as so-called anti-G suits used by helicopter and fighter pilots. The outfits, pictured, help to prevent loss of consciousness when performing complicated manoeuvres at high speeds, as well as reduce fatigue.

Formerly an arm of the quoted engineering company Wardle Storeys, Survitec has passed through the hands of several private equity firms in recent years. It was bought by Alchemy Partners in 1999 and later split into two separate businesses. It then passed to Montagu, another buyout firm, in 2004, who sold it on to current backers Warburg Pincus six years later for £280m. Buyout firms are understood to be interested in buying it again.

Goldman Sachs has been hired to handle the sale, which sources say is scheduled to kick off imminently.

The company generated around £50m of earnings last year and is chaired by Paul Lester, the former chief executive of British shipbuilder VT Group.

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