EDGE Group announced on 16 July 2026 an agreement to acquire a 100 percent stake in Akaer, a Brazilian aerospace and engineering company based in São José dos Campos.
The deal remains subject to customary conditions precedent and regulatory approval, EDGE said in its announcement.
The Abu Dhabi-based group was established in 2019 by Faisal Al Bannai and comprises more than 25 companies spanning military and civilian products across the defence, space, and cyber domains.
Akaer becomes the latest addition to that portfolio and deepens EDGE’s engineering presence in Brazil’s aerospace cluster at São José dos Campos.
Akaer’s aerospace engineering portfolio
Akaer was founded in 1992 and has more than 30 years of experience across the aerospace and defence sectors.
The company has logged over 10 million engineering hours on programmes for global manufacturers, spanning military and commercial platforms, and works across integrated product development, systems integration, and platform modernization.
Beyond aircraft, Akaer’s engineering teams also support naval and space projects, giving the firm a spread of work across several defence domains.
Its portfolio includes work on Saab’s Gripen NG fighter, Turkish Aerospace’s Hürjet trainer, and Embraer’s Super Tucano, ERJ-E1, ERJ-E2, Legacy 450/500, and KC-390 programmes.
Akaer has also supported Boeing’s 747-8, Calidus’s B-250, and the Brazilian Air Force’s P-3 Orion fleet.
Its subsidiary Opto produces precision optics for Earth-observation satellites, giving the group a foothold in space-sensor manufacturing alongside its airframe engineering work.
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What Akaer adds to EDGE Group
EDGE said the acquisition gives it an established engineering base in Brazil, spanning the full product lifecycle from conceptual design through industrialization.
The company said the deal would strengthen its ability to secure industrialization timelines on key unmanned aerial vehicle programmes.
It would also extend EDGE’s capabilities into optronics, electro-optic and infrared systems, and space-related technologies, the company added.
Hamad Al Marar, EDGE Group’s Managing Director and CEO, said Akaer “brings real engineering depth to EDGE.”
He described Akaer as “a highly specialized team with three decades of experience delivering complex aerospace programmes.”
Al Marar said EDGE’s priority was “continuity, for Akaer’s people, its programs and its customers, while building the foundation for long-term growth.”
Akaer will continue to operate from Brazil, with local governance in place, EDGE said.
EDGE Group’s expansion in Brazil
Akaer already works with EDGE on the development and industrialization of unmanned systems, following a memorandum of understanding that the two companies signed at LAAD 2023 in Rio de Janeiro.
That memorandum, signed on 14 April 2023 by Akaer chief executive Cesar Silva and EDGE Vice President for Strategic Programs Ahmed Hasan Alkhoori, set out cooperation on high-technology systems, with early work examining items such as missile seeker systems, laser fuzing and guidance kits for 70 mm rockets, and special-mission aircraft.
The acquisition extends EDGE’s broader push into Brazil, where it acquired a 50 percent stake in SIATT, the smart-weapons specialist behind the MANSUP anti-ship missile and a range of coastal-surveillance and maritime-security systems, in September 2023.
EDGE took full ownership of the Swiss unmanned-helicopter maker ANAVIA later that year, and in 2025 expanded its SIATT production footprint with a new 6,000 square metre headquarters and production facility in São José dos Campos.
With Akaer, EDGE consolidates its Brazilian holdings – SIATT’s missiles and Akaer’s engineering – around a single city, positioning São José dos Campos, the heart of Brazil’s aerospace industry and home to Embraer, as a hub for its programmes in the region.
Akaer, for its part, gains the backing of a larger group as it moves from an engineering services role towards a bigger share of series industrialization work.
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