CAE and Sabre Corporation have announced an agreement for CAE to acquire Sabre’s AirCentre airline operations portfolio (AirCentre) – a highly valuable suite of flight and crew management and optimisation solutions. The agreement, which is valued at US$ 392.5 million excluding post-closing adjustments, includes the Sabre AirCentre product portfolio, related technology and intellectual property as well as the transfer of AirCentre’s highly talented workforce. AirCentre generated approximately US$150 million revenue in the 2019 calendar year (pre-pandemic), and approximately US$55 million EBITDA for the same period. The closing of the transaction is expected in the first quarter of calendar 2022 and is subject to customary conditions and regulatory approvals.
The acquisition will further expand CAE’s reach across its broad customer base beyond pilot training and establish the company as a technology leader in the growing marketplace for industry-leading, digitally enabled flight and crew operations solutions. CAE expects that the transaction will be mid-single-digit percentage EPS accretive, and even higher free cash flow accretive, for CAE within the first year post closing (£1.00 = US$1.38 at time of publication).