Gooch & Housego (AIM:GHH), the Somerset-based photonics engineering group, has agreed a recommended cash takeover by Greenlight Bidco, a vehicle indirectly owned by Arlington Capital Partners VII.
The cash consideration implies an enterprise value of £400.5 million, equivalent to roughly 25.9 times Gooch & Housego's adjusted operating profit for the twelve months to 31 March.
Arlington, a Washington DC-based private equity firm with more than $14 billion of committed capital, has completed over 200 transactions in the past 27 years, mostly across aerospace, defence and regulated industrial sectors that overlap with Gooch & Housego's own end markets.
The board, advised by Investec and Rothschild & Co, considers the terms fair and reasonable.
Gooch & Housego has been executing a strategic plan since June 2023 aimed at becoming "the partner of choice in photonics", with its order book up 16.5% on a constant currency basis to £167.3 million at 31 March, from £142.4 million in September.
Revenue rose 15.5% to £81.9 million in the first half, with aerospace & defence sales up 51.7% to £35.6 million, though life sciences revenue fell 7.7%.
The board flagged persistent risks including tariff volatility, supply chain disruption and sharply rising germanium prices, a critical raw material for its defence and semiconductor optics.
It argued private ownership could let the company invest faster, pursue selective acquisitions and accept higher short-term debt than is available as a smaller, AIM-listed group.
