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Aviation Firm Buys Piece of O.C.’s Kaynar, Wants More

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

A Virginia manufacturer of aircraft parts said Monday that it purchased a 6% stake in Orange-based Kaynar Technologies Inc. and has talked about acquiring the company outright.

Fairchild Corp., in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, said it began acquiring Kaynar stock Aug. 17 because it was undervalued.

Officials at Kaynar, which employs more than 1,000 people in making aircraft fasteners, couldn’t be reached for comment.

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Fairchild, which also makes fasteners, isn’t the only company interested in Kaynar.

General Electric Capital Corp., which owns 58% of Kaynar, also has been involved in the acquisition talks, according to the SEC filing. GE officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

Kaynar shares closed Monday at $16, off 13 cents, in Nasdaq trading.

Fairchild, based in Dulles, Va., said it bought 303,000 Kaynar shares at an average price of $16.01.

After hitting an all-time low of $8 last week, Kaynar stock leaped 34% last Wednesday after it announced it had hired a financial advisor to help review alternatives to increase returns to shareholders. The company’s shares hit a 52-week high of $34.50 in late April.

Fairchild shares rose 69 cents Monday, or 5%, to $14.06, in New York Stock Exchange trading.

Last month, Kaynar was ranked eighth on Forbes magazine’s list of the 200 best small companies in America. It earned $12.5 million on sales of $150.4 million last year.

Fairchild is a much larger company, posting fiscal 1998 profits of $101 million on sales of $741 million.

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