Firm Profile
Ranger Aerospace is an active player in the consolidation trends that are affecting the aviation industry. Since early 1997, we have sparked hundreds of millions of dollars in buying, selling, and investing transactions. We have added value in each investment by bringing the accomplished Ranger team to bear on operational improvements. We focus heavily on operations, marketing, quality, and people. We subscribe to the "Good to Great" incremental approach to business transformations, combined with aerospace style "TQM" and numerous other process enhancements. Ranger is an aerospace services investor company, seeking to acquire profitable, high quality companies in several segments of the aviation service industry and its related trades. We are a hybrid mix between private equity capital and deep aerospace expertise. Ranger practices a serious, solid approach towards Total Quality Management and vigilant safety in all of its operations. Some past Ranger business units have been ISO-9000 and AS-9100 qualified, with some units consistently achieving FAA Diamond Awards for high levels of training investment over multiple years during our ownership and management.
Ranger’s acquisition criteria will be shared with serious inquirers, but these criteria include: revenues above $10 million or EBITDA above $2 million; must be consistently profitable; must have strong management; good strategic fit with Ranger objectives and other Ranger operations. Smaller companies will be considered if they command a strong niche. We are also capable of stepping up to very large transactions, given the strength of the institutional shareholders who typically join us as deal partners. One of our main goals is to consolidate for strength in a single segment, by buying a "platform" company, then building on it with aggressive organic growth, joint ventures, teaming arrangements, and add-on complementary acquisitions in the same segment or strategically adjacent segments.
PLEASE NOTE: Ranger is actively seeking new "platform companies" in various aviation, aerospace, airlines services, MRO, aftermarket parts, engineering, airfield support, and specialty manufacturing segments across the industry. Our interests include, but are not limited to: Heavy Commercial MRO, Logistics & Cargo Services; Airfield Service Operations; Aftermarket Parts & Components Overhaul/Re-Sale; Precision Manufacturing. Management teams, individual owners, or parent companies seeking to recapitalize an operation should feel free to contact us for acquisition discussions.
Ranger Aerospace also offers itself as an ideal co-investing partner to the Private Equity community, for the management of their portfolio operations, or a joint acquisition of a new platform vehicle for consolidation.
Case Studies
Since its kitchen table start-up in March 1997, Ranger Aerospace has created multiple large-scale successes in aerospace services build-up’s, teamed as a co-investing partner with institutional Private Equity shareholders, accredited LP’s, management option-holders, and its own capital. In every case, Ranger Aerospace and its small executive team are substantial investors and securities holders in the enterprise, ensuring strong alignment among management and all stakeholders. Although these successes occurred across multiple economic cycles, in differing company cultures, and in varying industry sectors, there are common themes which have become Ranger Aerospace hallmarks.
We provide highly principled, quality-centered leadership. We empower managers and leaders to achieve their own personal success in a positive and motivating employment atmosphere. We focus on taking good care of the people factors, at all levels in the enterprise. We work to disciplined business plans that are co-authored with our leadership colleagues in the operating companies. We communicate with high clarity, and share plans, metrics, and financial condition widely. Through meaningful bonus incentive plans and stock-based equity incentive plans, we reward strong contributors.
We truly embrace the philosophies embedded within "Good To Great." By maintaining a vigilant focus on Quality—Safety—F.A.R. Compliance, exceeding customer expectations, and taking good care of people as best we can, revenues and profits have been the happy results. We do not "cut our way to success," we grow, we are business-builders. We have created an estimated 2,400 new jobs over the years, perhaps more. We have produced superior investment returns NOT by clawing for the last nickel or throwing throngs of employees into the street, but by generating superior operational performance in an atmosphere of shared success.
Aircraft Service International Group ("ASIG")
Carve-Out, Repositioning, Add-On Acquisitions, International Expansion, Workforce Initiatives, Quality Innovations in Airlines Services.
This was Ranger’s first deal as an independent management holding company. This started as a "carve-out" of a collection of 7 medium-sized separate but affiliated airlines services and fueling companies, owned by a large conglomerate, with around 1,800 people at 28 airports. We capitalized the venture with Private Equity partners, then enhanced the financing with a public floatation of high-yield bonds. Ranger Aerospace dramatically grew and transformed the enterprise to "Best in Class" in industry-wide survey rankings among the world’s largest airlines. We won the Chairman’s Awards and Supplier of the Year awards from customers such as Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. The collection was globally re-branded as "ASIG" and built up to 4,250 professionals in 56 airports plus 27 fuel farms in North America, Europe and the Bahamas, servicing over 2.4 million commercial flights per year in 12 different time zones.
We managed the largest commercial aviation fuels facility in the world, "LAXFUEL" in Los Angeles. Revenues doubled, EBITDA profits rose commensurately. Services included fueling, fuel depot management, ground handling, cargo operations, line service, passenger / bag services, terminal services, local line maintenance, and other technical operations. We acquired Elsinore Aviation, plus two smaller airlines services companies, and integrated them smoothly into the ASIG consolidation. Joint ventures with Exxon Mobil, Shell, and OilTanking allowed us to coat-tail on the strengths of strategic partners. ASIG-Europe started at a single airport, but grew to become over 25% of the total company. Ranger’s CEO was the founding Chairman of SkyTanking GmbH in Europe, a joint venture with a large petroleum company; SkyTanking went on to also grow in a big way.
Workforce initiatives, plus business process improvements and IT investments, allowed us to grow quickly, without adding layers of overhead, while accomplishing industry-leading reductions in costly employee turnover through better training, recruitment, and incentives. The enterprise turned 50 years old when we owned it, and Ranger was a conscientiously principled steward of that legacy and its people. ASIG was acquired with a premium valuation by a large British conglomerate, and today operates with more than 8,000 people at 80 major airports, while remaining the top-rated brand in its served segments.
Keystone Helicopter
Dramatic Transformation & Accelerated Growth of Specialized MRO, plus Expanded Flight Operations, OEM Relations, Multiple Acquisitions.
www.lockheedmartin.com
www.sikorsky.com
Ranger Aerospace and its venture capital co-investors acquired Keystone Helicopter Corporation with the goals to grow the business and achieve segment consolidation in rotorcraft technical services, MRO, and completions. Keystone is a leading air-medical and helicopter technical services company headquartered near Philadelphia, with a large fleet of heavy jet turbine helicopters operating at 32 locations in a multi-state area in the Northeastern USA, plus a huge, broadly capable maintenance and engineering base in Coatesville PA.
Ranger assembled five large institutional investor groups in the helicopter enterprise, built large new facilities for rotorcraft technical services, and also acquired Composite Technology, Inc. as part of the continuing corporate development effort. CTI is the largest independent overhauler of rotor blades in the world. Under Ranger’s management and leadership, the business was briskly tripled from under $40 Million to over $125 Million in less than 5 years, and total Enterprise Value was approximately quadrupled. Institutional IRR on first-round equity was exceptionally strong for any aviation enterprise—in excess of 50%. We separately capitalized and built the huge Keystone "HeliPlex," which today is the largest rotorcraft technical center of its type in all of North America. We more than tripled employment in 4 years, caring for our well trained people who achieved FAA "Diamond Award" standards of quality every year. At peak we performed about 1,200,000 manhours of technical services, engineering, and flight services on hundreds of new or retrofitted turbine helicopters, engines, and components, both commercial and military, covering every major brand of helicopters. We flew roughly 16,000 EMS missions per year in our life-saving fleet operations.
Keystone turned 50 years old as a family-owned company during our ownership, and we worked hard at remaining a principled steward of the Keystone legacy and its wonderful culture. The original founder of Keystone was our Chairman Emeritus, at our request. We consistently pursued a quality-centered strategy, emphasizing and investing in continuous improvement programs that enhanced customer service, back-shop expansions, fleet reliability, safety, quality, and FAR compliance. Keystone was acquired with a premium valuation by United Technologies Corp. and is now the large centerpiece of the "Sikorsky Global Helicopters" and "Sikorsky Aerospace Services" rotorcraft services divisions of that giant company, with estimated revenues well-above $500MM and more than 2,000 people.
Ranger International Services Group
Sector Consolidation, Growth through the Recession, "Lean" Techniques, and New Channels in Specialized Airfield Operations & Aircraft Services, Fueling Services, and Maintenance/Engineering Technical Services.
Started at the lowest trough of the worst Recession in 50 years, this growth-oriented segment consolidation actually yielded the highest institutional "IRR" on equity due to multiple under-valued acquisitions, high-speed marketing, disciplined cost controls with exceptionally "lean" overheads, aggressive bidding on new contracts and in new channels, and industry-leading standards for quality and reliability. We acquired three different companies, and started-up our own engineering company, then added an international joint venture with a royal partner. Acquired firms were CAV International, US Logistics, and Hawthorne Services. The overseas venture was called Ranger Saudia, Ltd.
Ranger International became known for "Transformational Leadership," building entrepreneurial-sized companies to critical mass. The initial acquisition itself was an "INC. 5000" award winning growth outfit. Customer ratings for the life of this venture were consistently "superior" and sometimes even "exceptional," and remain high going forward. Acting as contrarians in a down market, we consolidated a middle market leadership position in Government Technical Services, focused chiefly on airplanes and airfields. We grew from just a few hundred to over 1,000 people with operations serving various branches of the Dept of Defense and several of DOD’s major Prime Contractors. This exemplary company advanced into numerous international locations with Airfield Services, Airbase Logistics, Ground Handling/Cargo, Aircraft Technical Services, Heavy Vehicular Overhauls & RESET, Technical Staffing, and Engineering Services. Prior to the effects of Sequestration, this company was sold with a premium valuation to a $1.1 Billion engineering firm as the new strategic owner. Under that new umbrella, this enterprise is positioned as the centerpiece of a much larger "Operations & Maintenance Platform" by taking advantage of the global reach of the new parent company. (Ranger International is now www.LouisBergerServices.com).
Ranger AirShop Holdings, Inc.
Acquisition and Accelerated Growth Investments in a global company serving the Air Cargo sector. Cargo Control Products are manufactured, sold, leased, and repaired for cargo clients at over half of the world's Top Fifty air cargo hubs.
Ranger AirShop Holdings, Inc.Starting with a majority investment in a large, far-flung enterprise, the goal is to aggressively grow a leading worldwide one-stop shop for leasing, sales, repair, and management of Unit Load Devices ("ULDs") and cargo net / strap manufacturing for the aviation industry. This company does not handle cargo nor airplanes, instead it produces, sells, leases, and manages the critical equipment needed to fly a cargo load, such as pallets, containers, nets, straps, and other paraphernalia. Without that equipment readily available where and when needed, the cargo load cannot safely fly.
ACL Airshop, a leader in products and services for the global air cargo industry, took on growth investors by joining forces with Ranger Airshop. Founded as "Airline Container Leasing" in 1983, successor operations ultimately merged in 2007 with Airshop Holdings of Amsterdam, Netherlands. The combined company, ACL Airshop, has become a leading worldwide one-stop shop for leasing, sales, repair and management of Unit Load Devices ("ULDs") and cargo net / strap manufacturing for the aviation industry. Today the company operates around the world on six continents.
ACL Airshop provides unique products and services to numerous leading air carriers. ACL Airshop operates in five highly complementary business segments: Cargo Control Products Manufacturing, ULD Leasing, ULD Sales, ULD Repairs, and ULD Logistics Management. A comprehensive, vertically integrated operation, ACL Airshop manufactures the highest quality air cargo products at its state of the art production facility in Easley, SC USA and at a partnered manufacturing operation in Germany. Cargo pallets, cargo shipping containers, straps, nets, hardware, and other cargo-specific control products are globally available 24/7/365. ACL Airshop also provides innovative leasing programs and management/tracking services, and operates FAA / EASA approved repair stations in multiple locations to repair and overhaul these assets.
Steve Townes, Ranger Aerospace founder and CEO of Ranger Airshop Holdings, stated: "We are honored to join the terrific people of ACL Airshop on a quality-centered growth plan aimed at superior customer service." Townes is also Chairman of a statewide public/private partnership called SC Aerospace, and he added: "The aerospace industry here is growing rapidly, and this growth teaming between two substantial South Carolina aerospace companies puts a strong exclamation point on our State's aviation motto - 'You Are Cleared to Land in South Carolina!' "
Ranger AeroSystems, Inc.
Sector Consolidation, Growth through the Acquisitions in Specialized "Niche" MRO, Precision Manufacturing, Component Overhaul, and other value-adding Technical Services. Commenced in mid-2014.
In 2014 Ranger Aerospace and its Private Equity institutional partners began yet another consolidation platform. Aimed at lower middle-market sized companies, the focus is on well-defined and very specific sub-sectors of the aerospace industry. In Precision Manufacturing, we are seeking makers of highly engineered flight critical parts as sole-source or limited-source suppliers to long-life airborne platforms (not just "machine shops"). In Maintenance-Repair-Overhaul ("MRO") we seek very specialized "niche" providers of advanced technical services to the aircraft maintenance arena (not huge hangar operations, but the small technical specialists who serve that huge, steady market). In Component Overhaul, we are looking for partners who provide technically proprietary value-adding overhauls to any critical aircraft components, rotable, sub-systems, avionics, engine accessories, and the like (virtually the entire range of components nose-to-tail for any civil or military airborne platform).
We also have corollary interest in spares, rotables, and aftermarket parts re-sellers; and engineering services companies. Solidly re-capitalized in this latest Ranger venture, we intend to build a long-lasting quality-centered enterprise which could very well become our largest and best, ever. Because South Carolina is the fastest-growing state in the US aerospace industry, and the Southeastern USA is the fastest-growing regional concentration of aerospace/aviation related companies in the world, we know that this is the right time and place to undertake this very focused investment thesis. We are following the same time-tested and proven management techniques that Ranger has employed successfully before, seeking to provide Transformational Leadership to the accelerated growth of each of our subsidiaries.
We are a value adding management and investment company, creating superior shareholder returns through innovative leadership, quality enhancements, and aggressive acquisitions, all aimed at top tier segment consolidation in selected aviation services businesses. We are actively seeking additional acquisitions and mergers in any segment of the aviation services and aerospace support sectors where a consolidation can be achieved.
Ranger's management team as a group also represents substantial ownership in the enterprise, and Ranger has shared equity and stock options with key leaders in subsidiary operations as well.
SIC Codes and NAICS Codes, Past and Present
Ranger Aerospace (along with our affiliates and subsidiaries) has accomplished numerous business activities in its past and current operations that qualify under Federal acquisition standards as "NAICS" Code-defined capabilities. NAICS means "North American Industry Classification System" and refers to Federal procurement standards and definitions. NAICS began replacing SIC codes in 1997.
Click Here to view a complete list of NAICS & SIC codes.
Ranger's Value Creation Methods:
