Deal brings together aircraft recycling specialists

Asia – Aircraft Recycling International (ARI) of Hong Kong, part of value-chain aircraft solutions provider China Aircraft Leasing Group (CALC), has acquired a 100% equity interest in Universal Asset Management (UAM) of Tennessee, USA.

UAM has nearly three decades of commercial and technical experience managing customers’ aviation assets, disassembling more than 300 aircraft and supplying after-market components to the commercial aviation industry.

As a wholly-owned US subsidiary, it is now responsible for ARI’s aircraft recycling business overseas and is also part of its global disassembly and distribution platform. ARI’s deputy ceo and chief operating officer Christina Ng has been appointed as UAM’s chairwoman while Keri Wright and Shawn Kling will continue to lead UAM’s operations as, respectively, ceo and president.

Ng says of the deal: ‘This brings together the strengths and expertise of both ARI and UAM to ensure a strategic business deployment that will capture huge potential in the mid- to late-life aircraft management industry, and will see aircraft completely managed through their full-life cycle, which will enhance the asset value of aircraft fleets. While expanding our presence in global markets, ARI will further enhance our total aircraft solutions for ageing aircraft so as to cater to the specific needs of the Chinese market.’

ARI is currently constructing a major aircraft recycling facility in Harbin, China. With UAM’s disassembly centre in Mississippi, ‘the combined operations will be capable of meeting global demand’, it is claimed.

The aircraft recycling industry sector ‘is growing rapidly’ in the Asia-Pacific region, and in China in particular, it is added.