13 October 2014, News Wires – Engineering giant GE is increasing its footprint in the oil & gas sphere with the acquisition of an Irish helicopter leasing company.
GE Capital Aviation Services is buying Dublin-based Milestone Aviation Group in a deal valued at $1.775 billion, the pair said on Monday.
The acquired company will continue to operate under its present name, with the current team also kept in place.
GE Capital chief executive Keith Sherin said: “The addition of Milestone will deepen our domain expertise in aviation and oil and gas, two critical GE industries,” Sherin added.
Milestone leases helicopters to 31 operators in 25 countries, many in the oil & gas market. Its fleet also serves the search & rescue, emergency medical and mining sectors.
The fleet has 168 helicopters worth some $2.8 billion, with options worth $3 billion with a variety of manufacturers.
– Upstream
