![Steve Townes ’75]( "Steve Townes ’75")
Steve Townes ’75 company Ranger Aerospace, a private equity consolidator and management holding company specialized in aviation deals since 1997, has won the M&A Middle Market Private Equity Deal of the Year Award, by The M&A Advisor international financial publication. The award, presented in New York on Nov. 9th, is for Ranger's acquisition of ACL Airshop, a worldwide company headquartered in South Carolina, and with service operations at more than 30 of the world's top fifty air cargo hub airports. Ranger Aerospace and its several institutional private equity co-investors acquired majority interest in ACL Airshop in February 2016. An independent body of experts representing a cross-section of the middle market industry assessed hundreds of nominees, judging the finalists' deals, deal-makers and firms. The holding company for this investment is Ranger Airshop Holdings, Inc. Ranger-led ventures have been consistently branded in that manner at the holding company level, while operating companies' legacy brands have been retained and amplified. In past aviation ventures, Ranger Aerospace won similar awards for Deal of the Year in 2009, and Deal of the Decade in 2011 (for the decade ending 2010). Ranger's own divestiture of Ranger International Services Group won 3 Deal of the Year awards in 2012 for the sale of that multi-faceted technical services company to a large engineering firm. The ACL Airshop acquisition was also a finalist in two other categories for the 2016 awards. Read More