GE Aerospace agreed to purchase investment casting group Consolidated Precision Products in a $11.75-billion transaction, a move that marks a significant integration of its manufacturing network for aerospace propulsion systems. The seller is a team of private-equity groups, Warburg Pincus and Berkshire Partners, which assembled the portfolio in stages over the past 15 years.

Cleveland-based CPP manufactures highly engineered castings and sub-assemblies primarily for commercial aerospace and defense markets, producing not only investment cast parts but also sand castings, in aluminum, magnesium, superalloys, and steel.

CPP operates 20 plants - 15 in the U.S., two in Mexico, and one each in Poland, Belgium, and Slovakia - and it has about 6,600 employees. The castings it produces are not only for aerospace engines but also for weapons systems and industrial gas turbines.

While CPP has been an investment casting supplier to GE Aerospace, the buyer has not clarified whether it will continue supplying various other aerospace and defense manufacturers after the purchase closes.

CPP’s production of industrial gas turbine components is expected to continue.

Investment casting is a critical, multi-step process for manufacturing highly engineered, precision components in hard-to-machine alloys, is in high demand to support the long-term supply programs of commercial aircraft builders, as well as a rising volume of defense manufacturing programs, and rapid expansion of electrical and natural gas power systems.

The process involves expertise in design and production, and the manufacturing technologies required represent a hurdle for expansion and new production capacity. Even so, SpaceX now plans to establish its own investment casting capability at a new plant in Texas.

GE Aerospace is active now as an investment casting producer for some components, including superalloy turbine blades, fuel nozzles, and structural castings, but it also relies on a network of external foundry partners.

“Investing in mission-critical casting capacity is needed to support the strong simultaneous demand across commercial engines, aftermarket and defense (markets),” stated GE Aerospace chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. “By combining GE Aerospace’s technology capabilities and Flight Deck with CPP’s manufacturing experience, we expect to expand capacity, improve performance and accelerate new engine technologies for the current fleet and next-generation platforms.”

Flight Deck is GE Aerospace’s lean operating model, introduced following its separation from General Electric as a “cultural and operational foundation” for business and manufacturing practices, and collaboration with suppliers.

GE Aerospace expects that by integrating its casting production more extensively with the downstream manufacturing programs it will improve coordination of component design with metalcasting processes, enhance production reliability, and accelerate deliveries.

The buyer stated that purchase will deliver “near and long-term value creation for customers and shareholders,” and it expects the combination to close in the second half of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.