Apollo-backed aerospace supplier Arconic to sell China business in $300 million deal- sources

By Kane Wu, Roxanne Liu and Greg Roumeliotis

HONG KONG/BEIJING (Reuters) - U.S. aerospace supplier Arconic Corp, controlled by private equity firm Apollo Global Management, is selling its China business in a deal that could value it at as much as $300 million, three people with knowledge of the matter said.

The Pittsburgh-based company has mandated Goldman Sachs to run the sale, the sources said, declining to be named as the information was confidential. Goldman declined to comment.

Arconic is a global supplier of aluminum sheet, plate and extruded products for sectors including aerospace, automotive, and defence, its website says.

A representative for Apollo declined to comment. Arconic did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

A string of multinational firms are weighing strategic options for their China operations as some found it hard to reap desired profits amid the country's slower economic growth, strong local competition or geopolitical headwinds, bankers have said.

Foreign companies have divested a combined $12.5 billion of Chinese assets across all sectors in 2023, following $13.1 billion of disposals in 2022, Dealogic data showed.

Arconic's China business is subscale with regards to the rest of the company, which is why Apollo is exploring options for it, said one of the sources, adding the China business does not have any sensitive intellectual property of any kind.

A carve-out of China would make financial sense to Apollo, as it seeks to maximise valuation of Arconic in a future exit, another of the sources said.

Arconic, which supplies to Boeing Co, operates two China-based manufacturing sites that make aluminum rolled products in the northern city of Qinhuangdao and the eastern city of Kunshan respectively, with about 860 employees in total, according to its website.

The company in May agreed to be taken private from Nasdaq by Apollo in a deal valued at about $5.2 billion.

Arconic's history dates back to in the late 1880s when aluminum producer Alcoa was founded.

It was launched in 2016 as a separate business from Alcoa before splitting into two companies - Arconic and Howmet Aerospace in 2020.

(Reporting by Kane Wu in Hong Kong, Roxanne Liu in Beijing and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Stephen Coates)