Houlihan Lokey Advises UAV Factory

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that UAV Factory has been acquired by AE Industrial Partners. The transaction closed on January 27, 2021.

Headquartered in Riga, Latvia, with operations in the U.S., UAV Factory is a leading provider of mission-critical airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) solutions. The company designs and manufactures highly engineered unmanned aircraft technologies utilized in a wide variety of defense and civil applications. UAV Factory offers a complete suite of unmanned system solutions, including long-endurance unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), multisensor gyro-stabilized camera gimbals, and advanced subsystems and accessories. The company’s flagship UAS platform is one of the most effective tactical UAS in the market, and its portfolio of highly differentiated gyro-stabilized camera gimbals provides superior image stabilization and image processing. UAV Factory’s platforms and payload solutions are field-proven and capable of operating in the most demanding conditions.

AE Industrial Partners is a private equity firm specializing in aerospace, defense, and government services; power generation; and specialty industrial markets. AE Industrial Partners invests in market-leading companies that can benefit from its deep industry knowledge, operating experience, and relationships throughout its target markets. AE Industrial Partners is a signatory to the United Nations' Principles for Responsible Investment.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive financial advisor to UAV Factory. This transaction represents Houlihan Lokey’s fourteenth unmanned systems transaction in recent years and underscores the firm’s continued global leadership and expertise in the unmanned systems market.

Houlihan Lokey’s Aerospace, Defense & Government (ADG) practice within the global Industrials Group is a leading M&A advisor to aerospace, defense, and government services companies. Since the beginning of 2020, the team has closed more than 25 transactions worth nearly $5.6 billion in enterprise value. With a staff of approximately 30 investment bankers in Washington, D.C., London, and Los Angeles, Houlihan Lokey’s ADG practice is among the largest dedicated industry banking groups worldwide. In 2020, the Industrials Group was once again ranked as the No. 1 M&A advisor for all U.S. industrial transactions, according to Refinitiv (formerly known as Thomson Reuters).