Avingtrans (AIM:AVG) sale highlights yet again the hidden value in small engineering businesses
The specialist engineering group has announced the sale of its Aerospace Division (Sigma Components) to private equity firm Silverfleet Capital Partners LLP for net proceeds of £52m. We were “mighty impressed” with interim results from this engineering group back in February, as we commented in our Blog, and this latest news highlights once again the value in decent small listed engineering businesses, not currently reflected in their stock market valuation.
The sale of the Division is only a couple of months since the Group acquired the Rolls-Royce pipe business for £3.5m, which it has now effectively ‘flipped’- we assume RR is happy! During the financial year ended 31 May 2015, the Aerospace Division reported revenue of £35.3m and operating profit of £3.3m (adjusted for the Composites business which is not being sold as part of this Transaction). The net assets of the Aerospace Division as at 29 February 2016 were approximately £26m. So a net £52m price tag, being approx. 1.5x sales, 20x post tax profits and 2x net assets,…