CBPE backs aviation buy-out

Close Brothers Private Equity revealed today it will back a management buy-out of two Channel Islands based aviation businesses – Aurigny Air Services and Anglo Normandy Aero Engineering – from the Exxtor Group for around £10m.

CBPE, the private equity arm of the Close Brothers Group, a UK investment bank, said in a statement announcing the deal it believed both Aurigny and Anglo were well-placed to benefit from a buoyant market for regional air services.

Aurigny, based in Guernsey, runs the inter-island air transport service in the Channel Islands. Anglo's aero-engineering facility is the main servicer of the island's aircraft.

Partner Richard Lott is confident CBPE's first transaction on the Channel Islands will not be its last, as he explained: “We are particularly delighted to have completed our first deal in the Channel Islands which we see as a location which provides some tremendously exciting investment opportunities which can only be good for the local economy and good for the Channel Islands.”