Final sell-offs loom for UK defence giant

But boss of Cobham’s private equity owner Advent says he has no regrets over break-up

THE private equity boss behind the controversial break-up of Cobham is preparing to sell off the last remnants of the UK defence and aerospace group.

Shonnel Malani, managing partner at Advent International, has overseen the dismemberment of Cobham since taking it over for £4billion in 2019.

He told The Mail on Sunday that he has no regrets and he indicated that Advent could soon have more UK targets.

Cobham’s sprawling operations have been sold off piece by piece to a series of international buyers leaving it with no manufacturing presence in the UK at a time when geopolitical tensions are high and when military top brass are warning that the UK needs to be prepared for the possibility of war.

Malani told The Mail on Sunday: ‘We are starting to consider the exit of the last parts of Cobham, but no rush. Over the next year or two is fine.’

Lady Cobham, daughter-in-law of company founder Sir Alan Cobham, has been an outspoken critic of the takeover.

She said last night: ‘Cobham was a vital contributor to national security in the Cold War, the Falklands campaign and the Gulf Wars. It was part of national resilience in the face of crisis.

‘It is now broken up to the detriment of that resilience and many individuals have lined their pockets.

‘Is this not another case of selling off the family silverware?’

The rump of the Cobham business includes CAES, which is behind radar and electronic warfare technology, and Cobham Satcom, a Denmark-based satellite communications firm.

These are set to be sold off at a time of heightening tensions amid the Ukraine war, US-China tensions and conflict in the Middle East – all of which put a premium on defence businesses.

It is not clear who the future buyers might be. Foreign industrial giants and private equity firms have queued to snap up other parts of the business.

Seven other divisions have already been sold off reportedly yielding nearly £6 billion, including Paris-based Cobham Aerospace Communications, which was hived off to France’s Thales in an £850million deal agreed last summer. Advent’s takeover of Cobham was vigorously opposed by a number of politicians and military figures.

Their fears about what would happen next were confirmed when Advent started breaking up the company.

Malani said: ‘We’ve made our investors happy.’

He added: ‘Cobham was a large conglomerate, many disparate businesses, that frankly was in quite a lot of trouble.

‘Had we not bought it a year or so from then it would have probably hit a wall of some sort and inflicted some sort of break up on its own.’

Meanwhile, Boeing had been suing Cobham over delays to its aerial refuelling programme, resulting in a settlement that cost the British company more than £80million.

In 2021, Cobham Mission Systems, which makes air-toair flight refuelling technology and is based in Wimborne, Dorset, was sold to US-Irish giant Eaton for £2billion.

Advent scooped up another British defence firm, Ultra Electronics, for £2.6 billion in 2022.