Blackstone has led a $300m debt package backing Arlington Capital Partners' take-private of Gooch & Housego, the AIM-listed UK manufacturer of photonic and optical components for aerospace and defence customers, Bloomberg reported on 22 October, citing people familiar with the matter.

The financing comprises a unitranche loan, a delayed draw term loan and a revolving credit facility. Blackstone provided the majority of the package, with JPMorgan and Jefferies also participating. According to Bloomberg, Arlington initially funded the acquisition with equity before adding the debt financing.

That sequencing is consistent with the public offer terms. When Greenlight Bidco Limited, a vehicle owned indirectly by Arlington Capital Partners VII, agreed the recommended cash offer on 16 July, the scheme documents stated that the cash consideration would be financed by equity invested by Arlington. The offer of 1,230 pence per share valued Gooch & Housego's fully diluted share capital at approximately £345.6m. The deal received clearance under the UK National Security and Investment Act in September, was sanctioned by the court on 14 October and became effective on 16 October, with the company's AIM listing cancelled shortly afterwards.

Headquartered in Ilminster in the UK, Gooch & Housego employs about 1,000 people across the UK, the US and other locations. It designs and manufactures precision optics, acousto- and electro-optics, fibre optics and thin-film coatings for aerospace and defence, industrial and life sciences markets.

"G&H occupies a unique position at the intersection of advanced photonics, precision manufacturing, and some of the most important technology applications of the coming decades," said Peter Manos, a managing partner at Arlington Capital Partners, when the Washington DC-area firm announced completion on 19 October. He added that Arlington brings "deep sector expertise and experience working in the UK and European markets".

The transaction illustrates a financing sequence seen in UK public-to-private deals: the sponsor completes the acquisition on an all-equity basis, then puts leverage in place after closing. Private credit lenders are well placed to provide that post-completion capital because a unitranche can be documented bilaterally or in a small club without a syndication process.

The structure itself is also telling. Pairing the unitranche with a delayed draw term loan gives Arlington pre-committed capacity for follow-on investment or acquisitions, while the revolver covers working capital, a combination that suits an engineering business with defence-related programmes. The presence of JPMorgan and Jefferies alongside Blackstone reflects the continued convergence of bank and direct lending capital on sponsor-backed mid-market financings.

For European lenders, the deal adds to evidence that US sponsors buying UK industrial and defence-adjacent assets are turning to large private credit platforms for acquisition debt. Defence supply-chain businesses, which require regulatory clearance and long-dated programme visibility, are a sector where lenders able to commit sizeable holds on a single credit can compete effectively against broadly syndicated alternatives.