By Jaideep Sarin, IANS
New Delhi : A major US military support provider company set up by an Ohio-based Indian American and his wife in 1984 has been acquired by leading British defence firm BAE Systems for some $450 million.
Rajesh K. Soin, who founded Modern Technologies Corp (MTC) with wife Indu Soin in Dayton, Ohio, in 1984, confirmed the deal with BAE Systems – the sixth largest supplier to the US defence department.
“Yes, we have signed a merger agreement with BAE Systems, which will acquire MTC,” Rajesh Soin told IANS here. The deal was clinched last week.
The Dayton-based NRI was here in connection with dedicating a 55-bed specialty hospital in the name of his father Sukhdev Raj Soin in Banchari village in Haryana’s Faridabad district, 80 km from here on the Delhi-Mathura highway.
“We are pleased to join forces with such a formidable organisation. We also take great pride in what MTC has accomplished over the last 23 years. I am confident the combination of our organisations will foster even greater employee development and expanded market opportunities,” Soin said.
The acquisition of Nasdaq-listed MTC by BAE Systems is being termed as strategic for the British firm, which is hot on the trail of major military contracts from the US government.
MTC provides technical, professional and logistics services to the US defence department and intelligence agencies. The company is rated among the fastest growing US defence technology companies.
Soin is currently the chairman and CEO of MTC. He is probably the only NRI who has a management college – the Raj Soin College of Business – at the Wright State University in Ohio.
“I and my wife Indu set up MTC in Dayton in 1984 as a private company that specialised in high-end engineering and defence products. These included avionics and control system mechanisms for the C-130 (Hercules transport aircraft), attack helicopters and also providing intelligence planning,” Soin said.
Among other things, MTC even provides solutions for modern day soldiers, especially about what they wear in the war zone.
“We have been involved in the $350 million Program Executive Officer (POE) soldier project. One soldier carries about 60-65 pounds of weight on him, including the gun, electronic equipment and other accessories.”
“We keep trying to minimise the load on the soldier by making things more miniature. We reduced the weight by nearly 20 pounds. But the requirements of the present day have brought it back to 60 pounds,” Soin pointed out while describing the work being undertaken by MTC.
A mechanical engineering graduate from Delhi College of Engineering, Soin migrated to the US in 1969 and started his business career with the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company.
Besides MTC, the Soin couple have founded several other successful business ventures in the US and sold them off.
They own some privately held businesses with interests in software development (Corbus), capital investment (Soin Capital), engineering products (Composite Technologies), yarn (India-based Garuda Cotex), real estate (JMD Development) and profiling private investments.
BAE Systems will purchase all outstanding shares of MTC at $24 per share and also take over its debt liabilities of over $80 million.
BAE Systems’ sales in 2006 exceeded $27 billion.
Incidentally, the Indian Air Force (IAF) last month started receiving the first of the 66 BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainer (AJT) it has purchased in a deal valued at Rs.80 billion ($2 billion). Twenty-four Hawks will be supplied in flyaway condition and the remaining 42 built under license by state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).