AAR agrees to pay $1.8bln for 65% stake in MRO Holdings
The deal marks AAR's largest acquisition on record, dwarfing its recent purchases in the aircraft-maintenance sector
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AAR has agreed to pay $1.8 billion for a 65% stake in MRO Holdings, an aircraft-maintenance company.
The purchase price far exceeds AAR's recent deal-making. The company bought HAECO Americas, once North America's second-largest heavy aircraft maintenance operator, for $78 million, according to AAR's Wikipedia entry citing HAECO's own announcement. In December 2025, AAR agreed to buy Aircraft Reconfig Technologies from ZIM Aircraft Cabin Solutions for $35 million in cash to add engineering and certification work, the same entry states.
AAR has also been trimming its balance sheet elsewhere. Earlier this year it announced a wind-down of its Legacy Commercial Programs business, which held about $160 million in net assets as of February 28, 2026, as part of an effort to generate more cash, according to a company press release.
That cash push sits alongside a balance sheet that carried $1.02 billion of long-term debt and just $80 million of cash and equivalents at the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2026. Against those figures, the $1.8 billion commitment to a majority stake in MRO Holdings likely requires substantial new financing.