TIGER INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERS FUND III COMPLETES SEVENTH PLATFORM INVESTMENT WITH ACQUISITION OF MARKET-LEADING AVIATION SERVICES PROVIDER IAC

NEW YORK and LONDON, Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Tiger Infrastructure Partners ("Tiger Infrastructure" or "Tiger"), an innovative middle market growth infrastructure investor, today announced the acquisition of International Aerospace Coatings ("IAC"), a market-leading aviation services provider headquartered in Shannon, Ireland and Irvine, California.  IAC utilizes 18 hangars strategically located at seven airports and two customer sites in the United States and Europe to provide essential services to a diverse and durable customer base in the global aviation industry, including aircraft manufacturers, commercial airlines, aircraft leasing companies, air cargo carriers and governments.  

"As a growth-oriented infrastructure investor, we were attracted to IAC because of its compelling growth prospects, leading market position, substantial asset base and long-term relationships that provide barriers to entry, and stable, reoccurring revenues from providing essential services," said Emil W. Henry, Jr., CEO of Tiger Infrastructure.  "With operations in both the United States and Europe, IAC aligns well with Tiger's trans-Atlantic footprint and execution capabilities, which are a source of competitive advantage for us in the middle market."

IAC's core business involves aircraft painting, aviation technical services, aircraft interior refurbishment and aircraft graphic solutions.  Aircraft are typically painted for corrosion protection and branding purposes every 5-7 years, frequently coinciding with Federal Aviation Authority ("FAA") and European Union Aviation Safety Agency ("EASA") mandated maintenance events to reduce downtime and costs.  IAC also provides engineering services and asset management solutions to help customers ensure regulatory compliance through its Eirtech Aviation Services ("EAS") division. 

"We are excited to partner with Tiger for IAC's next chapter of growth," said Martin O'Connell, CEO of IAC.  "We expect a combination of aviation industry tailwinds to drive demand growth for aircraft painting, and in partnership with Tiger, we aim to open new facilities and expand our capacity substantially in the years to come.  By 2027, we anticipate the industry will have a significant shortfall in serving capacity versus annual demand." 

Mr. O'Connell joined IAC in 2015 as CFO and became CEO in early 2022, replacing Niall Cunningham, IAC's prior CEO, who has since served as Executive Chairman.  Mr. Cunningham led and jointly owned IAC with Vance Street Capital, the seller. Both Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Peter Collins (former COO and also part of the shareholder group) will remain involved in the business under Tiger's ownership.

Tiger was advised by Harris Williams (financial advisor), Winston & Strawn LLP (lead legal advisor), and Alton Aviation Consultancy (commercial advisor). Vance Street Capital was advised by Jefferies (financial advisor) and O'Melveny & Myers LLP (legal advisor).

IAC is the seventh platform investment for Tiger Infrastructure Partners Fund III ("Fund III"), which closed at its hard cap of $1.25 billion in early 2022.  Fund III has previously completed six other middle market growth investments across the Digital Infrastructure, Energy Transition and Transportation sectors in North America and Europe:

• 11:11 Systems provides value-added managed infrastructure solutions including connectivity, cloud and security.
• Forsa Energy develops, builds, owns and operates distributed, flexible demand response power generation assets in the United Kingdom.
• NorthLink Aviation is developing new air cargo infrastructure under a long-term concession at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, Alaska.
• Qwello develops, owns and operates public, on-street electric vehicle charging infrastructure under long-term concession contracts with European municipalities.
• RBBS is a broadband service provider focused on deploying fiber-to-the-premises and fixed wireless systems in rural areas in England and Wales. 
• Summit Carbon Solutions is developing one of the largest carbon capture and sequestration projects in the world.

Tiger Infrastructure Partners is an innovative private equity firm focused on providing transformational growth capital to middle market infrastructure companies. Tiger's value-add approach targets growth investments across the Digital Infrastructure, Energy Transition and Transportation sectors in North America and Europe, where Tiger believes strong tailwinds are driving demand for new infrastructure.  Tiger maintains offices in New York and London.  For more information, visit www.tigerinfrastructure.com.

IAC is a market-leading aviation services company headquartered in Shannon, Ireland and Irvine, California.  IAC specializes in aircraft painting, aviation technical services, aircraft interior refurbishment and aircraft graphic solutions for aircraft manufacturers, commercial airlines, leasing companies, air cargo carriers, governments and other owners of wide- and narrow-body aircraft.  IAC also provides engineering services and asset management solutions to help customers ensure regulatory compliance through its Eirtech Aviation Services ("EAS") division.  For more information, visit www.iac.aero.

Vance Street Capital is a middle-market private equity firm focused on investing in highly engineered solutions businesses across the medical, life science, aerospace, defense, and industrial sectors. For over two decades, Vance Street's partners have worked with management teams and family owners to accelerate revenue growth, improve operations and acquire strategic assets for the companies in their investment portfolio.  For more information, visit www.vancestreetcapital.com.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements", which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "may," "will," "anticipate," or "believe" (or negatives thereof) or other variations thereon or comparable terminology or forward-looking context.  These statements reflect only Tiger's and IAC's current expectations and are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.  IAC and Tiger undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, except to the extent required by applicable law.

SOURCE Tiger Infrastructure Partners