Hexcel Corporation, a leading materials company headquartered in Connecticut has recently announced its decision to acquire Structil SA including all its exclusive shares. The acquisition is expected to close in 2017, with the presumptions of successful reviews and approvals from the relevant employee representatives and the associated French authorities.

Structil is a prominent French manufacturer and supplier of high performance and advanced composites to the defense, aerospace, and industrial sectors. The company is a collaboration of Safran Ceramics (80.05%) and Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (19.95%) and has over 70 employees. This joint venture has set up a 68,000-square foot production unit in Vert-le-Petit, situated in France. From this plant, Structil manufactures pultruded profiles used in engine nacelles, structural adhesives, aerospace interiors, prepregs, and military jets, among other applications. As per earlier reports, with the offerings of these product lines, the company had generated sales of over USD 21 million for 2016.

Hexcel’s proposition of acquiring Structil will reportedly enable the latter to be an integral part of the global advanced composites market. The acquisition will further enhance the firm’s product offering to the industrial and aerospace sectors and also provide a positive impetus to global automotive composites market, state industry analysts. The project will have advanced technologies in the offing for Structil to benefit from and will further catalyze its development.

Hexcel, the global composite maker, specializes in advance composites technology and had accounted for sales of more than USD 2 billion in 2016, i.e., more than one-fourth of the total sales from the five plants located in France. Hexcel has over 6300 employees across the world, among which more than 1000 are located in the manufacturing units based in France. Additionally, more than 85% of Hexcel’s sales can be credited to the demand from the aerospace sector, which includes products for airplanes from Airbus, and Boeing, and the LEAP engine from Safran.

Last year, in January 2016, Hexcel Corporation also acquired full ownership of Formax UK limited. Formax is a leading manufacturer of reinforced composites and specializes in highly engineered glass fiber, aramid fiber fabrics, lightweight carbon fiber multi-axials. This purchase has fueled the growth of global carbon fiber reinforced polymers market and has also enabled Hexcel to further improve dry reinforcements technology for next-generation aerospace and industrial applications.

Industry analysts claim that this collaboration will not only strengthen the 30-year-long partnership of Hexcel and Safran but will also dynamically impact the revenue models of both the companies.