Story ID: 6032113alerts
Erickson Buying Evergreen Helicopters, Air Amazonia
By: Mark Huber
Caption: 
Word Count: 202
Erickson Air Crane is buying Evergreen Helicopters for $250 million, as well as Air Amazonia from Brazilian oil and gas exploration company HRT for $65 to $75 million. Both deals are expected to close in the second quarter and will boost Erickson’s current $180 million annual revenues to a projected $430 million.

These acquisitions will give Erickson a diversified fleet of more than 100 helicopters of various sizes and more than a dozen fixed-wing aircraft, mainly turboprops converted for cargo-hauling. More important, according to Erickson CEO Udo Rieder, they will move Erickson from operating exclusively in the heavy-lift segment (and therefore largely dependent on construction, logging and firefighting in North America, Europe and Australia) into a “global aviation services” market that is highly diversified, both in terms of customer segment and country location.

Evergreen operates 52 helicopters, including 12 Bell 212/412s, 12 Eurocopter Super Pumas and various AgustaWestland, Bell and Eurocopter models, though only half are reported to be actively flying missions. The Air Amazonia fleet consists of seven Sikorsky S-61s, five Bell 212s and two Eurocopter AS350s. Rieder said his immediate goal is to deploy or dispose of the idle Evergreen aircraft and then move quickly to integrate the three companies.