DCU graduates' aerospace company sold for €42m

A DUBLIN-BASED aerospace company, which was founded by four DCU graduates, has been sold to American listed-company Curtiss- Wright for €42 million.

Acra Control designs and manufactures electronic instruments used in aircraft flight testing.

The company was founded in 1992 by DCU engineering graduates Aaron McNelis, Niall McGirr, Diarmuid Corry and Fergal Bonner. Other shareholders are ACT Venture Capital, Enterprise Ireland and chairman John Weston, former chief executive of BAE Systems.

Acra Control had turnover of €20 million in the financial year ended March 2011. The most recently filed accounts for the company show that Acra Control posted a profit of €2.77 million in the year ended March 2010, on turnover of just over €17 million. This compares to a pretax profit of €2.34 million in the previous year.

The company, which was advised by AIB Corporate Finance on the deal, was approached by Curtiss-Wright in January this year. Curtiss-Wright, whose history stretches back to the Wright brothers, the makers of the first aircraft, provides engineering products to the aerospace, defence and energy industries. Listed on the New York stock exchange, it has annual sales of $1.9 billion and employs over 7,700 people worldwide.

Acra Control’s chief executive Fergal Bonner said the acquisition will bring increased investment and resources to the company. “The acquisition will bring further investment into the business, and in particular will help us to move further into the US market while allowing Curtiss Wright to strengthen its position in Europe.”

Acra Control has a particularly strong presence in Europe and Asia. It provides equipment to some of the world’s largest aerospace companies, including Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and the European Space Agency.

Mr Bonner said Curtiss Wright is fully committed to maintaining the company’s Irish operations. Acra Control, which is based in Churchtown in Dublin, employs 140 people, mostly electronic engineers. It has a 60-strong research and development team which has produced high-tech products such as avionics interfaces, video compression units, rugged network switches and solid-state recorders over the company’s 20-year history.

Acra Control’s products are mainly used for aircraft flight testing. Their systems ensure that the aircraft performs as expected, by identifying design flaws and ensuring the aircraft is certified as safe to fly.

The four founders of Acra Control graduated from DCU in 1986 with degrees in electronic engineering. After working abroad in Germany, the UK and the US, the four returned to Ireland in 1992 and founded the business. Turnover at the company has been increasing by approximately 15 per cent per annum over the last number of years.