Carlyle-Backed StandardAero Nears Pricing IPO Above Range
(Bloomberg) -- StandardAero Inc. and some of the aircraft maintenance services provider’s investors raised $1.44 billion in an initial public offering, as companies seize the listings window before the US presidential election.
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The offering priced at $24 per share, above a marketed range, according to a statement. StandardAero sold 53.25 million shares, and affiliates of Carlyle Group Inc. and Singaporean sovereign wealth investor GIC Pte sold 6.75 million shares. The shares were marketed for $20 to $23 each.
The pricing gives the company a market value of about $8 billion, based on the number of shares outstanding in an earlier filing.
The size of the IPO had been increased prior to the pricing, the filing showed. The offering received orders for at least 10 times the number of available shares, people familiar with the matter said earlier.
Funds affiliated with BlackRock Inc., Janus Henderson Group Plc and Norway’s $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund separately indicated their interest in buying as much as $275 million worth of shares at the IPO price, the filing showed.
A clutch of companies are moving ahead with US IPOs before the market for new listings is effectively closed by the election on Nov. 5. On Monday, Cerebras Systems kicked off an IPO that could raise as much as $1 billion, and Platinum Equity-backed technology firm Ingram Micro Holding Corp. filed for its own much-anticipated IPO.
Carlyle had explored a potential sale for StandardAero but decided to pursue an IPO because bids valued the company below what it’s expected to reach in a listing, Bloomberg News reported in September.
StandardAero is the largest pure-play provider of aerospace engine after-market services for fixed and rotary wing aircraft, serving the commercial, military and business aviation end markets, according to its filing. Customers include GE Aerospace, Honeywell International Inc. and Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc.
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company had a profit through the first half of the year, reversing earlier annual losses, according to the filing. For the first half of the year, StandardAero had net income of $8.6 million on revenue of $2.6 billion. That compared with a loss of about $12.6 million on $2.3 billion in revenue during the same period in 2023.
Carlyle completed its purchase of StandardAero from Veritas in 2019. A statement at the time didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal. Carlyle will continue to control the company after the IPO, according to the filing.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are leading the offering, the filing shows. Bank of America Corp., UBS Group AG, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and Royal Bank of Canada are also among the total of 17 book-running managers and co-managers. StandardAero plans for its shares to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SARO.
--With assistance from David Carnevali.
(Updates with valuation in third paragraph.)
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