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AC&A Enterprises LLC, (Lake Forest, CA, US), a supplier of composite and metallic parts in the aerospace, defense, space and specialty automobile markets, announced on Nov. 2 that it has acquired Applied Composites Engineering Inc. (ACE, Indianapolis, IN, US), a leader in advanced composites engineering and manufacturing for aerospace and defense applications. AC&A is a portfolio company of AE Industrial Partners LLC, a private equity investor specializing in aerospace, power generation and specialty industrial companies.

“ACE is a perfect fit with AC&A, combining our complementary set of composites engineering and manufacturing capabilities,” says Leigh Sargent, president of ACE. “As part of AC&A, and backed by AEI’s deep industry experience and financial resources, we will be able to provide even greater value to our customers and significantly increase our growth.”

“AC&A has accelerated its investments in growth through our partnership with AEI, including facility expansions, new equipment and now strategic acquisitions,” says Justin Uchida, CEO of AC&A. “We are excited about the ACE acquisition which will expand our capabilities, enable us to better serve our customers and greatly enhance our competitive market position.”

“Advanced composites represent a large and growing opportunity within AEI’s target markets,” says Jon Nemo, partner of AEI. “We are building a unique composites platform with strong leadership, scale and highly specialized engineering, design and manufacturing capabilities designed to serve our diverse and growing set of customers. We expect to continue to build this platform organically and through additional highly strategic acquisitions.”