After an exclusive negotiation process that began in December 2021, Orolia, a company in positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) and related activities, tech, joins Safran Electronics & Defense, the European and a globally recognized player in inertial navigation systems.
Orolia employs over 435 people in Europe and North America and has revenues of around €100m. Its solutions include atomic clocks, time servers, simulation and resilience equipment for GNSS signals, and locator beacons for commercial aviation and military applications.
What does Orolia bring to Safran’s portfolio?
These make Orolia a highly complementary and synergistic part of Safran Electronics & Defense’s activities as it meets the challenges of positioning, navigation and synchronization in contested and vulnerable environments. In most situations, GNSS systems are the reference providers of time and position data. However, they need to be secured by combining them with accurate, high-integrity autonomous time or inertial references.
Through this deal with Orolia, a top provider of time management solutions, Safran Electronics & Defense, a positioning and navigation solutions firm, will offer a cohesive set of resilient PNT architectures and equipment to meet the challenges of integrity and robustness for the aviation, defense, space, transportation, mobility and critical infrastructure markets.
What is the market offering of Safran?
Safran is an international high-tech group, operating in the aviation (propulsion, equipment and interiors), defense and space markets. Its core purpose is to contribute to a safer, more sustainable world, where air transport is environmentally friendly, comfortable and accessible.
Safran has a global presence, with 76,800 employees and sales of 15.3 billion euros in 2021, and holds, alone or in partnership, world or regional leadership positions in its core markets.
Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia, said: “Orolia could not imagine a better fit than Safran to secure its growth and leverage its PNT leadership positions. Thanks to the addition of best-in-class timing and inertial technologies, premier access to the largest defense and aerospace markets, and a proven track record in government program capture and execution, Safran and Orolia now have all the cards in hand to establish themselves as the Resilient PNT leader.”
Commenting on the deal, Martin Sion, Chief Executive Officer of Safran Electronics & Defense, said: “The acquisition of Orolia makes Safran one of the only companies with the full complement of PNT technologies, bringing together Orolia’s precise time referencing and Safran Electronics & Defense’s proven inertial navigation solutions. Our shared ambition is to become the world leader in resilient PNT for all conventional and strategic applications.”
