Firan Technology Group Corporation announced today that its US subsidiary FTG Aerospace Inc., based in Chatsworth California, has acquired substantially all of the assets of Airco Industries LLC (DBA Photo Etch), a Texas based designer and manufacturer of a full portfolio of cockpit products, electronic assemblies and simulator solutions.

The transaction was effected pursuant to an asset purchase agreement entered into between FTG Aerospace Inc., PhotoEtch, and PhotoEtch's parent company. Under the terms of the acquisition, FTG Aerospace Inc. has acquired modern and advanced processing equipment, product designs, process know-how, PhotoEtch's customer contracts as well as the working capital of PhotoEtch.

The purchase of PhotoEtch's assets has significant strategic benefit to FTG as it is expected that the acquisition will accelerate its penetration of a significant number of commercial aerospace, defense and simulator customers, primarily in the United States.

“We are excited about this deal as it enables FTG to continue its strategy of consolidating smaller manufacturers into a larger, more capable company that can compete on a world scale”, commented Brad Bourne, President and Chief Executive Officer of FTG. He added, “As we built out our global footprint for our Aerospace business we realized that getting the utilization rates up quickly was an important but challenging goal, and this acquisition will obviously accelerate the process.”

“For FTG, after a transition period, this transaction is expected to boost activity primarily in our FTG Aerospace - Chatsworth facility, with some smaller benefits to our other Aerospace facilities and should generate significant incremental contribution margin across our Aerospace business unit”, added Mr. Joe Ricci, Chief Financial Officer.