Precision Micro, the European market-leading photo-chemical etching company, has been sold by Meggitt

Livingstone’s Industrial sector team has advised global aerospace and defense group, Meggitt plc on the sale of Precision Micro, Europe’s market-leading photo-chemical etching company, to private equity house LDC for $30m.

LDC is supporting a management team led by current Managing Director Ian McMurray. Operating from its state-of-the-art processing plant in Birmingham, UK, Precision Micro manufactures more than 50 million high-precision metal components each year for major global manufacturing customers across automotive, aerospace, medical and industrial markets. Its pioneering photo-chemical etching process provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional sheet metalworking when machining precision parts from thin gauge metals.

Working to micron accuracy, its components enable next-generation aircraft engines, zero-emission vehicle technology, surgical instruments, titanium medical implants and automotive companies for the likes of Rolls-Royce, Mercedes, Jaguar and Bentley. Over 75% of Precision Micro’s $20m sales come from overseas markets. Ian McMurray, Managing Director of Precision Micro, said the investment would enable the company to take full advantage of several positive, global trends in its core markets, including the increasing preference for complex, burr and stress-free components manufactured from high-performance metals, rising quality standards, the miniaturization of electronics and increasing demand for clean and fuel-efficient vehicles.

The completion of this transaction further reinforces Livingstone’s position as advisers of choice to listed UK companies in the industrial sector, following on from the recent divestments of Morgan Advanced Materials plc’s Electro Ceramics business to CeramTec and Smith Group plc’s global IGT bearings business to Miba AG.