HENSOLDT, the new German sensor house, has signed a Share Purchase Agreement with UK private equity firm ECI and management to acquire the UK provider of security and maritime radar solutions Kelvin Hughes, London. The transaction is subject to anti-trust approvals and closing is expected in the third quarter of 2017.

“Kelvin Hughes is highly successful in the marine and security markets, while HENSOLDT has a strong position in the higher-end military and surveillance radar domain”, said Thomas Müller, CEO of HENSOLDT.

“Our portfolios and market access are perfectly complementary and we will see significant growth from this transaction. The Kelvin Hughes portfolio will allow us to enter more price-sensitive markets and their security solutions will add value to the HENSOLDT products and bring us one step closer towards our strategic objective to develop our Sensor House into a Sensor Solutions provider,” he added.

Kelvin Hughes, with approximately 200 employees, designs, produces and markets radar sensors mainly for maritime and security applications. Among their products are solid state high performance X-band pulse Doppler radars as well as Command and Control software that allows the integration of multiple radar and camera sensors into a comprehensive display package. The company generates revenues of more than € 30m. Their products are used by more than 30 navies and coast guards worldwide.

“I am proud that Kelvin Hughes becomes a part of HENSOLDT. Both companies have shaped the radar market for seven decades and I am looking forward to the tremendous opportunities we have together and the new solutions we can jointly offer to our customers,” said Russell Gould, CEO of Kelvin Hughes.

HENSOLDT is a leading provider of radar and IFF systems on airborne, naval and land platforms. Its flagship product, the TRS series represents a new generation of radar systems for naval and land platforms and offers a detection capability without equal together with cutting edge AESA technology. The system’s naval version TRS-4D was selected not only for the German Navy’s F125 class frigates, but also by Lockheed Martin for the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship.

Over 150 of HENSOLDT’s Spexer 2000 ground surveillance radar are in operation or under contract worldwide and haven proven their capabilities in more than 1.7 million hours of operation.