Imperial Holdings confirms sale of aviation business

IN A UK/SA deal just signed up, Imperial Holdings is continuing its intended disposal of most of its aviation business (FTW September 28, 2007). According to company secretary Rohan Venter, Imperial has just reached an agreement with the UK’s CMB and the Petercam Group for the acquisition of Imperial’s share in the Air Contractors Group (ACL) based in Dublin, Ireland. This, he told FTW, is expected to be finalised before the end of the year. In terms of the agreement, CMB (an ACL shareholder since 1998) will become the majority shareholder in the company – mainly active in the European airfreight and aircraft leasing business, owning 25 aircraft and operating a further 18. These include Airbus A300, Hercules L100-30, ATR 42 and ATR 72 freighter and passenger aircraft. It’s a two-edged deal for CMB, Venter added. “At the same time as our agreement ACL has entered into exclusive negotiations with the French Post about the sale of ACL’s airfreight subsidiary Europe Airpost (EAP).”