KKR bought Atlantic Aviation from Macquarie Infrastructure in 2021 for about $4.475bn, a price that implied 16.2 times the company’s 2019 earnings. A valuation of nearly $10bn represents more than a doubling in roughly five years. Earlier reporting by Bloomberg indicated Apollo was partnering with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC to take a controlling position, with KKR injecting fresh capital to stay invested.

Atlantic Aviation runs one of the largest networks of fixed-base operators, or FBOs, in North America, the facilities that provide fuelling, hangarage, de-icing, and ground services to private and corporate aircraft at airports. Those operations sit on long-term airport concession agreements at high-activity airfields. The company has expanded to more than 100 US locations and pushed into the Caribbean.

The wider market is consolidating around two dominant platforms, Atlantic and Signature Aviation, the latter taken private by Blackstone, Global Infrastructure Partners, and Cascade in 2021."Atlantic has built an irreplicable infrastructure footprint across the nation’s busiest airports, underpinned by long-term concession agreements and a customer base that values reliability and service above all else," said Apollo Partner David Cohen, adding that "the private aviation market has structural tailwinds that we believe will persist, and Atlantic is well positioned to capture that growth."Since 2021, Atlantic has expanded its locations through acquisitions and organic growth across the US and certain international markets, while investing in employee health and safety."Atlantic Aviation exemplifies the kind of scaled, essential infrastructure platform we seek to build in our portfolio," said KKR Partner Dash Lane.