ATSG acquires PEMCO

Air Transport Services Group (ATSG) significantly expanded its MRO footprint (and added a new conversion business) with the acquisition, announced this morning, of US-based MRO and conversion company PEMCO World Air Services. The acquisition was made through ATSG’s MRO subsidiary Airborne Maintenance and Engineering (AMES).

PEMCO, which was owned by private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, has its own MRO facility at Tampa International Airport (TPA), where it performs heavy maintenance, overhaul and repair work for a variety of airlines, as well as some 737-300 and -400 passenger to freighter conversions. It has also done some conversions at the COOPESA facility in San José, Costa Rica (SJO), but most of its conversions are done at the STAECO facility in Jinan, China. No surprise there, as most of PEMCO’s conversions are done for Chinese carriers – in fact, PEMCO says that it has converted more than 70% of the 737-300Fs and -400Fs currently operating in China.

ATSG said that, following the acquisition, it would offer heavy maintenance and modifications at the AMES facility in Wilmington and the PEMCO facility in Tampa, and passenger-to-freighter conversions in “Tampa, Central America, and Asia.”

Beyond saying that ATSG did not assume any PEMCO debt in connection with the acquisition, the companies released no financial details of the transaction. ATSG President and CEO Joe Hete did say, however, that the acquisition was “consistent with our goal to diversify ATSG’s revenue and earnings, for an investment in the same price range as our planned and completed stakes in cargo airlines in China and Europe.” He also added that, “based on ATSG’s current estimates and outlook, the PEMCO acquisition is expected to be accretive to ATSG’s earnings starting in 2017.”