Camp Systems sale to Hearst completed

Deal for Merrimack aviation service firm estimated at $2 billion

The sale of Merrimack-based Camp Systems to Hearst Corp. – a deal valued at about $2 billion – has been completed, GTCR, a private equity firm based in Chicago, said Wednesday.

GTCR has owned Camp since 2012, when it invested in the firm led by CEO Ken Gray and President Vibby Gottemukkala.

CAMP, founded 45 years ago as a paper-based system, today is a software-as-a-service provider that provides aircraft maintenance tracking workflow software and information services to business aviation worldwide.

Camp serves more than 19,000 aircraft, 30,000 engines and 1,300 maintenance facilities globally, according to GTCR, and has 12 offices across North America, Europe and Asia and 800 employees worldwide. Seventy of them work in New Hampshire.

Camp will be folded into Hearst’s Hearst Business Media subsidiary, which focuses on information, data analytics, and workflow products for the finance, health care and transportation industries.

UBS served as lead financial adviser to Camp and GTCR with Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank as financial advisors. Kirkland & Ellis LLP provided legal counsel to Camp and GTCR.