Avborne Heavy Maintenance
Avborne Heavy Maintenance
March 6, 2008
Following the 9/11/01 attacks, the air carriers and affiliated industries went into a virtual tailspin. Among the companies suffering from the downturn was Avborne, which provided a variety of heavy maintenance services for Airbus and Boeing aircraft from its 226,000-square-foot facility at Miami International Airport.
At the time Qorval was called by its owners, Avborne was in default on $123 million in debt and had an annual negative EBITDA of nearly $2 million. In less than a year, and under a new Qorval CFO, $90 million in debt was forgiven and the balance sheet was restructured. In conjunction with the restructuring, the shareholders invested $35 million of new money which brought their at risk capital to $88 million. Within another year, Qorval managing partner, Jim Malone, was brought into the company. Acting at various points in the engagement as chairman, vice chairman, director, president and CEO, Qorval worked alongside the senior management team to re-engineer the company's strategy while reducing direct costs and lowering its G&A. With these initiatives, Qorval led the sale of one division in 2005 for 12 times EBITDA. This reduced the at risk capital of the shareholders by two thirds.
In March 2008, Qorval completed the recovery when the sale of Avborne Heavy Maintenance to AAR Corp. was announced for $40 million. The proceeds from this sale returned the remaining at risk capital to the shareholders; while they realized an additional $10 million in excess recovery funds.
Qorval is a leader in the corporate renewal of airline-affiliated companies-with its principals and/or partners having supported and helmed four major company turnarounds within the aviation industry during the past several years.
"Notable Quotes"
Major Shareholder: "The high level of expertise that Qorval brought to Avborne is demonstrated by the complete and total turnaround of the company in a very distressed market. Qorval also played a significant role in the planning that resulted in the company's successful sale."
Lender: "The combination of financial expertise and operational savvy and experience is difficult to find in one firm. Fortunately, Qorval has both the experience and expertise in both areas-both of which were vital to the successful turnaround of Avborne."