Strat Aero plc Acquires Aero Kinetic

Strat Aero plc announced that it has acquired Fort Worth, Texas-based Aero Kinetics, the first company to file for FAA certification for multi-rotor unmanned aircraft.  While Strat Aero servces law enforcement and military agencies, Aero Kinetic is focused on providing UAV solutions to the US commercial market including Fortune 100 clients.  In addition to UAV's, the company also provides special missions, aircraft maintenance, and aviation consulting services.  These other business lines will be retained by Aero Kinetics' parent company and rebranded in Q1 2016. 

​Aero Kinetic's press release states the total consideration is valued at $24M with incentives.  The consideration includes $1.2M consisting of $425K of cash at closing and $775K in the form of a seller note.  In addtion, there is a contingent consideration of $250K based on revenue generated from an existing UAV services contract and 6M warrants based on achieving FAA certification and revenue targets.  An additional 9.2M warrants will also be issued at closing.

Tony Dunleavy, CEO of Strat Aero, states: "Aero Kinetics brings the technological know-how and capability into the enlarged group and completes our full service offering across all commercial markets.  Strat Aero is now able to offer full solutions across the globe and, once FAA type certification is achieved which is expected to be in the first half of 2016, we will have a compelling solution for Fortune 100 and other very large organisations with multiple internal use cases.  Our solution will provide command and control over multiple UAVs, secure often live data transmission and integration to a distant central source, minimise national and state liabilities, and maximise future use cases via urban, night-time and beyond line of sight flights, all of which will be essential ingredients and USPs of the Strat Aero group."

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