AE Industrial Partners, LP (AEI), a private equity firm specializing in national security, aerospace, and industrial services, announced the closing of its third flagship private equity fund, AE Industrial Partners Fund III, LP, with total capital commitments of $1.28 billion.
Fund III will be making control investments in the toll gates across the aerospace and defense supply chains and support major industry suppliers as they scale up production to meet ongoing and increased demand from their respective end markets.
The commitments to Fund III came from a wide mix of institutional investors in the U.S. and worldwide, including leading endowments, charitable foundations, public and corporate pensions, financial institutions, funds of funds, family offices, and sovereign wealth funds.
So far, AEI has deployed more than a quarter of Fund III into five platforms and three add-on investments. These include:
1.) York Space Systems – An independent provider of small satellites, satellite components, and turnkey mission operations.
2.) RedLattice – A cyber technology company offering full-spectrum cyber capabilities for customers in the U.S. national security, defense, and commercial communities.
3.) Firefly Aerospace – A leader in economical launch vehicles, spacecraft, and in-space services.
4.) Yingling Aviation – A leading provider of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and fixed-base operator (FBO) services to business aviation and government customers throughout the United States.
5.) Calca Solutions – A proprietarily sourced specialty chemicals business that sits within several of AEI’s target markets, including specialty industrial, space, aerospace, and defense.
So far, Fund III has offered nearly $870 million of co-investment to Fund III limited partners and other investors.
Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to AEI.
KEY QUOTES:
“Investors value our team’s decades of experience, specialized industry expertise, and deep network of relationships that extend throughout our target markets. We are also well positioned to take advantage of current geopolitical and macroeconomic trends that have contributed to a significant pipeline of exciting investment opportunities.”
- David Rowe, Co-CEO & Managing Partner at AEI
“We are extremely grateful for the support shown by our existing investor pool, as well as the numerous global commitments from new investors who have joined us, expanding and diversifying our investor base. Over the past several years we have seen a tremendous growth of interest in our target markets from LPs, and we look forward to continuing our work building the next generation of middle market companies in national security, aerospace and industrial services.”
- Michael Greene, Co-CEO & Managing Partner at AEI
