British company aquires U.S. defense contractor Armor Holdings, Inc.

BAE Systems Inc. (www.baesystems.com), a multi-national aerospace and defense organization based in Great Britain, completed its acquisition of Armor Holdings Inc.

BAE said May 7 it would pay $4.532 billion (≤2.275 billion) to buy Armor Holdings. Under the terms of the agreement, Armor Holdings shareholders will receive $88.00 for each share of Armor Holdings common stock held at closing, without interest. Armor Holdings had sales in 2006 of approximately $2.4 billion.

BAE will integrate Armor Holdings with its existing land systems business, BAE Systems Land and Armaments. The business is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. BAE Systems Land and Armaments provides tactical combat vehicles to military markets, including a line of medium tactical vehicles and mine-resistant/ambush protected vehicles.

In a prepared statement, the company said Armor Holdings has expertise in automotive design and lean, high-volume manufacturing technologies.

BAE Systems is a defense and aerospace company. It has a range of products and services for air, land, and naval military forces, advanced electronics and information technology products and it provides customer support services. The company has 88,000 employees worldwide, and reported ≤13.7 billion (US$ $25.4 billion) in sales in 2006.