TGE Group - Ownership and Business Overview

In December 1995 the Permira Funds invested in a vehicle company called TGE, which acquired six instrumentation and engineering service companies from Meggitt plc, a UK aerospace business. A buy-in team was recruited to run TGE and Meggitt Plc retained a minority stake in the business.Simultaneously the German electrical contractor Sunvic (also owned by Meggitt, but heavily loss-making) was demerged, with an investment made by the Permira Funds to fund a radical restructuring of Sunvic's business. This was completed successfully and the business was sold to Alstom in 2000.TGE meanwhile embarked on a strategy to refocus the 6 companies it had acquired. TGE combined the engineering service companies to form Axsia which was spun out from the group. Axsia expanded successfully internationally and was sold in 2001.The instrumentation companies, focusing on high technology detection instrumentation, each implemented their own growth strategy. Each business invested in new product development and was able to focus on its own niche markets. The Permira Funds sold their stake in all of the businesses in 2000-01 with the exception of Delta F, a US based instrumentation company focused on oxygen analysis.