MIAMI and TAMARAC, Fla., Jan. 3, 2011 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HEICO Corporation (NYSE:HEI-A) (NYSE:HEI) today announced that its Flight Support Group has acquired 80% of the assets and certain liabilities of Blue Aerospace, LLC. Financial terms were not disclosed, but HEICO stated that it expects the acquisition to be accretive to its earnings within the first year after the closing.
Blue Aerospace, in operation since 2002, is a leading supplier, distributor, and integrator of military aircraft parts and support services primarily to foreign military organizations allied with the United States. Blue also provides aircraft parts repair management and support. Among the platforms Blue supports are the C-130, P-3 and F-16 aircraft. Blue is well known as an authorized distributor of P-3 spare parts and as the sole integrator for the SFAR88 Fuel Systems Safety Retrofit Kit for the C-130 and derivative aircraft.
Michael Navon, Blue's founder and President, and other members of Blue's management team continue to own the 20% interest not acquired by HEICO. Mr. Navon and the other management owners will remain with Blue Aerospace.
Based in Tamarac, FL, Blue employs 30 people at its headquarters facility located there. HEICO stated it fully expects that the staffing, operations, and commitment of the company will remain consistent with current levels.
Laurans A. Mendelson, HEICO's Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, and Eric A. Mendelson, HEICO's Co-President & Chief Executive Officer of HEICO's Flight Support Group, stated, "We are thrilled to add Blue Aerospace's extensive capability to our already formidable parts and repair operations. Michael Navon and his team are extraordinarily talented, successful and experienced aircraft parts aftermarket businessmen and we are excited to add them to the HEICO team."
Mr. Navon noted, "We see this not as a significant change to the style and commitment that afforded us past success, but instead a great opportunity to associate Blue with a highly responsive and growing organization such as HEICO. We firmly believe Blue will be able to serve customers and partners even better through this relationship."
HEICO Corporation is engaged primarily in certain niche segments of the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunication and electronic industries through its Flight Support Group and its Electronic Technologies Group. HEICO's customers include a majority of the world's airlines and airmotives as well as numerous defense and space contractors and military agencies worldwide in addition to medical, telecommunication and electronic equipment manufacturers. For more information about HEICO, please visit our web site at http://www.heico.com.
Certain statements in this press release constitute forward-looking statements, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and contingencies. HEICO's actual results may differ materially from those expressed in or implied by those forward-looking statements as a result of factors including, but not limited to: lower demand for commercial air travel or airline fleet changes, which could cause lower demand for our goods and services; product specification costs and requirements, which could cause an increase to our costs to complete contracts; governmental and regulatory demands, export policies and restrictions, reductions in defense, space or homeland security spending by U.S. and/or foreign customers or competition from existing and new competitors, which could reduce our sales; HEICO's ability to introduce new products and product pricing levels, which could reduce our sales or sales growth; HEICO's ability to make acquisitions and achieve operating synergies from acquired businesses, customer credit risk, interest and income tax rates and economic conditions within and outside of the aviation, defense, space, medical, telecommunication and electronic industries, which could negatively impact our costs and revenues. Parties receiving this material are encouraged to review all of HEICO's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, but not limited to filings on Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
There are currently approximately 19.9 million shares of HEICO's Class A Common Stock (HEI.A) outstanding and 13.2 million shares of HEICO's Common Stock (HEI) outstanding. The stock symbols for HEICO's two classes of common stock on most web sites are HEI.A and HEI. However, some web sites change HEICO's Class A Common Stock trading symbol (HEI.A) to HEI/A or HEIa.
CONTACT: HEICO Corporation Thomas S. Irwin (954) 987-4000 ext. 7560 Victor H. Mendelson (305) 374-1745 ext. 7590