HOUSTON – General Electric is planning to pay $1.78 billion to buy an Irish helicopter leasing company with a fleet that’s used in offshore oil and gas, emergency medical services, mining and other industries.
The Dublin-based seller, Milestone Aviation Group, has 168 helicopters worth $2.8 billion, a fleet about a third the size of a rival collection owned and leased by Houston-based Bristow Group.
The helicopters are designed to transport drilling rig crews to hundreds of miles offshore, and GE said in a statement Monday it believes the helicopter leasing business is a “fast-growing sector in aviation.”
“The addition of Milestone will deepen our domain expertise in aviation and oil and gas, two critical GE industries,” said Keith Sherin, chairman and CEO of GE Capital, in a written statement.
The deal is expected to close next year.
It’s the latest in a string of GE deals to get bigger in the oil and gas industry.
Last month, the industrial giant said it would get more than $500 million to build four of its most advance gas turbines to power two gas-fired power plants in Texas.
And earlier this year, it said it would assemble four massive blowout preventers strong enough to withstand the highest subsea reservoir pressures the oil industry has ever faced.
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