Aubert & Duval

Who owns Aubert & Duval?

Aubert & Duval is a French Aerospace & Defence company, now owned by Airbus, Safran, which acquired it in 2026 from Tikehau Capital.

About Aubert & Duval

Aubert & Duval is a French metallurgist that develops and manufactures high-performance metals and alloys, including specialty steels, titanium alloys, nickel-based superalloys and high-performance aluminium, for the most demanding industrial applications. From ten industrial sites, most of them in France, and using closed-die forging presses that range up to 65,000 tons, it supplies forged and die-forged parts, bars and powders for additive manufacturing to aeronautics, defence, energy, nuclear, space and medical customers. Its components go into aircraft engines, landing gear, military platforms and space launch vehicles, positioning it as a strategic supplier of critical parts and materials to safety-sensitive industries. According to the company, it employs roughly 4,400 people, generates annual revenue of about 962 million euros and holds around 370 patents.

Ownership journey

Aubert & Duval was founded in Paris in 1907 by Pierre Aubert and the Duval brothers as a forging and heat-treatment house, later building its steel and forging base around the Les Ancizes plant in central France. In April 2023 the company was carved out of its former parent and acquired by a holding structure assembling strategic and financial parties, among them Tikehau Capital, which invested through its Tikehau Private Equity Aerospace fund. The transaction was framed as a long-term effort to restore and develop a strategically important European supplier of critical aerospace and defence materials. In June 2026 Tikehau Capital signed an agreement to sell its stake and exited via a trade sale, closing its investment in the business.

Under PE ownership

The 2023 acquisition was positioned as the start of a major transformation and turnaround of a business that had struggled with quality and delivery under its previous owner. Under the new ownership the operating scale expanded materially, with reported annual revenue rising from around 550 million euros at the time of the deal to roughly 962 million euros, and headcount increasing from about 3,700 to approximately 4,400 employees. The company continued to invest in its industrial base and in higher-value capabilities such as titanium and powder metallurgy for additive manufacturing, deepening its role across aeronautics, defence, energy, space and medical markets. By the time of the 2026 exit the business had been repositioned as a recovering, higher-output supplier serving the ramp-up in commercial aerospace and defence demand.