Aircraft

Some of the $300 million Ilyushin Finance plans to raise from an initial public offering will go towards buying 30 small, Western turboprops, its general director Alexander Robtsov told Flight Daily News at the show yesterday.

"We are very carefully studying all small aircraft in series production from Piper, Beechcraft, Bombardier, Cessna and from Czech manufacturers," he said. The company, which currently buys only Russian types, wants aircraft with a capacity of 10-50 seats that can replace ageing local models such as the Antonov An-2.

"We badly need these aircraft types, there are no [current production] Russian equivalents," he said. Ilyushin Finance has already sent a request for proposals for its requirement. "We want to buy at least 30 aircraft over the next two to three years."

The IPO will be launched on the Moscow Stock Exchange by year-end and in the second quarter in Hong Kong, said Rubtsov. Both exercises will raise $150 million with around a third of the company's shares going public. Its majority shareholder is United Aircraft.

"We need to raise $4 billion over the next five years - the IPO is the first step," said Rubtsov. Ilyushin has a portfolio of 160 aircraft such as the An-148/-158 and the cargo version of the Ilyushin Il-96.

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