Aerospace firm gets $15 million financial guarantee from Nova Scotia

A Nova Scotia aerospace component maker will receive a $5 million loan and a financial guarantee of up to $15 million from the province to help it bid on big contracts.

The Economic and Rural Development and Tourism Department approved $5 million in repayable loans for Composites Atlantic Ltd. of Lunenburg. There’s also an undertaking, valued at $15 million over five years, for the province not to call in outstanding loans.

The department said the loans will help with bridge financing as the company tries to secure $150 million in contracts.

“There’s more than one customer involved,” said Claude Baril, president and chief executive officer of Composites Atlantic, told the Halifax Chronicle Herald. “These are conditional … should we get the contract, we’ll get the loan from the province.”

Baril said the company approached the province about the assistance in the summer. He said negotiations on the contracts are underway, and the company should find out if it wins them within six months. Baril declined to say whose work the company is bidding on.

If the company wins the contracts, the work could create more than 100 jobs, said Baril. Composites Atlantic has about 360 employees.

The company’s technologies include filament winding, liquid composite molding, and compression molding, to make a range of products including structural panels, flaps, landing gear doors, and satellite structures.