GigaSat/Giga-Com is delighted to announce to our valued partners and customers the recent acquisition of the Giga Group of companies including Giga-Communications and Giga-Composites Ltd in the UK, GigaSat Inc in the USA and GigaSat Asia Pacific Pty Ltd in Australia by Ultra Electronics Holding Plc.

The terms of the acquisition are an initial cash consideration of £12.4m with additional payments of up to £24.6m payable subject to earnings growth over the next two years.

Ultra Electronics were attracted by the significant growth seen at GigaSat/Giga-Com in the past three years, and the global market reach that has been achieved. For this the staff and management at GigaSat/Giga-Com would like to thank all our partners and customers around the world for their contribution to this success story.

We at GigaSat/Giga-Com believe the change in ownership will see a positive benefit to all our partners and customers in terms of company stability, engineering resources and global market penetration in both government and commercial sectors

The GigaSat/Giga-Com range of products will still be manufactured at our existing factory in Tring UK, while further new and exciting Satcom and microwave products will be available very soon. The company will continue to trade from the Gigasat Building in the UK and from the USA and Australian offices. All staff have been retained and Chris Lay will continue as MD.

Rakesh Sharma, Chief Executive of Ultra, commented "I am pleased to have been able to bring GigaSat/Giga-Com into the Group. GigaSat/Giga-Com has an excellent position in the satcom market and this acquisition fits Ultra's strategy of being able to offer both terrestrial and satellite communication links. GigaSat operates in both the military and commercial domains and has a very broad market reach."

Chris Lay, MD of the newly renamed company, Ultra Electronics, GigaSat, stated
"The Giga Group of companies has been remarkably successful in recent years with unprecedented growth, but we needed the support of a bigger organisation to fulfill our long term business objectives. Ultra Electronics is the perfect partner to take us forward. The GigaSat/Giga-Com product range is complementary to Ultra's existing products so no rationalisation will be required. On the contrary, looking forward, we anticipate Ultra's financial strength and depth of engineering expertise will allow us to accelerate our product development plans and compete effectively on satellite and microwave projects, previously beyond our reach."

It's business as usual as far as our partners and customers are concerned. We will continue to strive to deliver leading edge communications products and systems to an ever expanding global customer base.

Basked in the UK, Ultra Electronics is an internationally successful defence, security, transport and energy company with a long, consistent track record of development and growth.

Ultra businesses constantly innovate to create solutions to customer requirements that are different from and better than those of the Group’s competitors. By applying these differentiated solutions to a wide range of international platforms and programmes, Ultra has built an exceptionally broad range of niche market positions.

Ultra offers support to its customers through the design, delivery and support phases of a programme. Ultra businesses have a high degree of operational autonomy so that they may provide exceptionally agile and responsive support to customers and partners.

Operationally, the Group is organised into three divisions:
Aircraft & Vehicle Systems, Information & Power Systems and Tactical & Sonar Systems. These reflect the six key capability areas shown below:

• Aircraft Systems
• Vehicle Systems
• Information Systems
• Power Systems
• Tactical Systems
• Sonar & Undersea Systems