07 May 2008,

Bayern-Chemie completes sale of Protac to Roxel.

The German rocket motor subsidiary of European missile systems group MBDA, Bayern- Chemie GmbH, today completed the sale of its subsidiary Protac SA to Roxel, a jointly owned company of MBDA (50%) and SNPE (50%).

The German rocket motor subsidiary of European missile systems group MBDA, Bayern- Chemie GmbH, today completed the sale of its subsidiary Protac SA to Roxel, a jointly owned company of MBDA (50%) and SNPE (50%).
The Protac sale follows on from MBDA’s acquisition of Bayern-Chemie in August 2007 and marks a further step towards the rationalisation of the European propulsion industry and provides an opportunity for the development and expansion of both Roxel and Protac by bringing together complementary technical competencies and skills.
Protac, which has an annual turnover of €28 million and 90 employees at its site at La Ferté Saint-Aubin, 100 miles south of Paris, develops and produces rocket motors and solid propellant rockets. In particular, the company specialises in complex metallic structures, thermal insulations, laser welding and pyrotechnics for civil applications and conducts research for customers such as MBDA, Thales, Airbus, Snecma and the French Ministry of Defence.
The company’s new owner, Roxel, is the largest supplier of propulsion systems for tactical weapons in Europe and the third largest in the world. Roxel is jointly owned and controlled by its two parent companies, MBDA and SNPE, France’s leading supplier of energetic materials, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. The company produces the propulsion system for key European missile programmes such as the Aster family of anti-missile missiles as well as supplying rocket motors for MBDA’s Asraam air-to-air missile, Exocet anti-ship weapon, Vertical Launch Seawolf naval point defence system and Rapier/Jernas air defence system. With its centres of excellence for cast double base propellant systems (at the Summerfield, UK, site) and extruded double base propellant (at the St Médard-en-Jalles and Bourges sites in France), Roxel envisages the existing technical cooperation between Bayern-Chemie and Protac/Roxel will be extended for future R&T activities.
The European Commission gave its approval for Roxel to acquire Protac on the 21st April.