Aethon Capital Acquires Stratos Aerospace Components for $1.7 Billion

Aethon Capital today announced the completion of its acquisition of Stratos Aerospace Components, Inc. ("Stratos"), a leading designer and manufacturer of mission-critical structural and propulsion components for commercial aerospace and defense applications, in a transaction valued at approximately $1.7 billion.

Headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, with manufacturing operations across the United States and Europe, Stratos is a Tier 1 supplier to all major commercial airframe original equipment manufacturers and a strategic supplier to several leading defense primes. The company's products are designed-in to long-lived aircraft platforms with multi-decade production tails, providing exceptional revenue visibility.

"Stratos represents an outstanding example of the type of business Aethon seeks to acquire: a market-leading specialist in a structurally attractive industry, with deep customer relationships, mission-critical product positioning, and significant runway for both organic growth and operational improvement," said David Chen, Managing Partner of Private Equity.

The investment thesis for Stratos centers on three areas of value creation:

1. **Operational improvement**: Aethon's in-house operating team will partner with Stratos management to drive lean manufacturing transformation, supply chain optimization, and pricing discipline across the company's 14 production facilities 2. **Capacity expansion**: Targeted capital investment to address constrained capacity and capture additional content on next-generation aircraft programs 3. **Strategic acquisitions**: Pursuit of complementary tuck-in acquisitions to broaden Stratos's product portfolio and customer relationships

Stratos generated approximately $980 million in revenue and $185 million in EBITDA in the trailing twelve months, with both metrics expected to grow at double-digit rates over the next five years driven by aircraft production rate increases at major airframe OEMs.

The acquisition was funded through equity from Aethon Capital Partners IX and committed debt financing.