Partnership enables AMRO to deepen service offerings, support national security

[South El Monte, Calif. February 2021] – AMRO Fabricating Corporation (“AMRO”), a leading supplier and manufacturer of large, lightweight metallic structures serving the aerospace and defense industries, has announced an exciting new partnership with Trive Capital (“Trive”), a Dallas-based private equity firm with extensive investments in the space and defense sectors.

Trive, has partnered with the senior leadership teams of AMRO, Aerospace Engineering Corp. (“AEC”) and AAE Aerospace (“AAE”) to create Karman Space & Defense (“Karman”). The new platform is one of the largest independently owned suppliers focused on manufacturing complex systems for the space, missile, interceptor and hypersonic markets. The senior leadership teams of the businesses will continue as equity holders and executives at Karman.

“As space, missile and hypersonic capabilities garner increasing attention from both the U.S. government and commercial industry, we are excited to form this new partnership with the collective vision to build an integrated supplier of flight hardware and assemblies for the space and missile markets. Working collaboratively with Trive, AAE and AEC will allow us to continue growing with our customers, investing in new capabilities and adding capacity to alleviate current supply chain constraints. Our goal is to build the preeminent Tier 1 systems integrator to the space sector, in a historically fragmented market,” commented Mike Riley, Chief Executive Officer of Karman and former owner of AMRO.

Mark Mahboubi, Chief Technology Officer for Karman and former owner of AEC, added, “Our partnership with AMRO and Trive has already allowed us to accelerate our expansion and play an increasing role in the development and manufacturing of our customers’ most important next generation programs.”

“We are pleased to have found like-minded partners in Trive and the Karman team members, in building a leading platform to the missile and space sector. Our management group believes in the Karman thesis, which is dedicated to investing in capacity, technology and alleviating critical supply chain constraints — we are eager to put the momentum of AAE behind this vision,” commented Norm Christensen, Chief Strategy Officer of Karman and former owner of AAE.

David Stinnett, Partner at Trive, stated “Karman is well positioned to benefit from rapidly increasing demand for space launch, missile defenses, and hypersonic weapon technologies with substantial content on the leading platforms currently in development. AMRO, AEC and AAE have established outstanding reputations for high quality and on-time delivery on the most intricate, difficult to manufacture flight hardware and assemblies. We share management’s vision for creating a full-service supplier for these markets and anticipate significant investment to support the capabilities and capacity demanded by customers both now and in the years to come.”

About Trive

Trive Capital is a Dallas, Texas based private equity firm managing approximately $2 billion in aggregate capital commitments. Trive focuses on investing equity and debt in what it sees as strategically viable middle-market companies with the potential for transformational upside through operational improvement. They seek to maximize returns through a hands-on partnership that calls for identifying and implementing value creation ideas.

About Karman

Karman Space & Defense is an integrated concept-to-production solutions provider for the space and defense industry’s most complex and mission-critical projects. Through its four divisions the company provides solutions for integrated dynamic systems, assemblies, and advanced manufacturing that are used in our industry’s most critical programs, including crewed-space flight and hypersonic missions. Headquartered in Huntington Beach, CA, with facilities in Washington, Alabama, and Washington DC, Karman brings together industry-leading capabilities, advanced technologies, and the multi-decade history of its four business divisions, AAE Aerospace, AEC, AMRO, and Systima. For more information, visit Karman-SD.com.\

About AMRO

AMRO is a leading manufacturer of precision machined and formed isogrid and orthogrid skin panels, with expertise in flight structures and assemblies for mission-critical projects in space and defense. We specialize in High-Speed Machining, Brake Forming, Certified Welding, Assembly, Laser Tracking and Heat-Aging. AMRO brings over 40+ years of flight-critical hardware experience to Karman Space & Defense, and in collaboration with sister divisions, AAE Aerospace, AEC, and Systima, helps deliver concept-to-production solutions for our partner’s most complex projects.For more information, visit Karman-SD.com or www.Karman-Amro.com.

Brenda Ramirez
Marketing Manager
Brenda.Ramirez@Karman-SD.com