FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0917.PDF
BUSINESS Civil sales put Aerospatiale into profit BY GILBERT SEBDON IN PARIS Strong sales of civil aircraft helped Aerospatiale swing back into profit during 1991, although the state-owned French aerospace giant warns that, with orders declining, the outlook remains bleak over the next two to three years. In 1991, the group posted a net profit of Fr312 million ($38 million), turning round from the Fr396 million loss of 1990. The recovery was led by increased deliveries from the Airbus In dustrie consortium in which Aerospatiale has a 37.9% stake, and the delivery of 60 regional aircraft by the ATR joint venture with Aeritalia. Group sales pushed up 16% to reach Fr48.6 billion in 1991, of which aircraft accounted for Fr21.3 billion. Helicopter sales fetched Fr9.5 billion, while the missiles business slumped 20% to Fr5.3 billion. Exports in creased as a proportion of sales from 60% to 65%, reaching Fr31.5 billion. Orders during the year fell 50% to Fr35 billion, leaving Aerospa- Government keeps 70% stake in Thai The Thai Government is likely to retain at least a 70% majority shareholding in Thai Airways International, de spite the gradual privatisation which started in March. The state-owned carrier, which is the largest public enter prise to be opened - to private investment, is due to be listed on the Bangkok Stock Exchange for the first time in May. An initial public offering of 95 mil lion shares was released in March, with another five million going to employees — about 7.6% of the company's stock. A further increase in capital will dilute the Government's holding to 90%. Further issues are ex pected over the next 12 months, but will probably stop once 30% of the stock has been released, according to Chatrachai Bunya- Ananta, executive vice-president, business and commercial. Neither the management nor its structure are likely to change much as a result of the privatisa- Thai Government stays at the he! tion. The main board is domi nated by Government appoint ees — although there has been little interference, apart from that in investment programmes. An example was the cabinet's recent instruction to cancel a second batch of seven Airbus A330s, even though the order had been approved previously (Flight International, 25-31 March). The Government asked Thai to "review" the order be cause growth projections showed that the airline would need additional capacity by the time these aircraft would enter service, says Bunya-Ananta. Thai now operates a fleet of 58 aircraft, including 39 wide- bodies. It has orders outstanding for two McDonnell Douglas MD- 11s, five Airbus A300-600s, seven A330s, eight Boeing 747- 400s-and eight 777s. Four Gen eral Electric CF6-80C2 powered 747s and two Rolls-Royce Trent- engined 777s were added in a deal announced on 1 April. D tiale with a backlog of only 2.6 years. Although the aircraft sec tor has a comfortable three to four years' worth of work, the outlook for the helicopter and especially the missiles businesses remains "worrying". Prospects in the space sector also look dull and Aerospatiale has been af fected badly by the French Gov ernment's cancellation of the S- 45 strategic nuclear missile pro gramme for which the group was prime contractor. Despite its traditional strength in nuclear weapons and missiles, Aerospatiale is becoming in creasingly biased towards the civil sector, which now accounts for 60% of sales, says president Henri Matre. The group may raise new funds by opening its capital to French banks. Credit Lyonnais is expected to take a 10% share totalling Frl billion before the end of 1992. • A decline in the defence and space sectors was also behind a 9.4% fall in 1991 sales at Das sault Electronique to Fr2.8 bil lion. Despite the drop, the company turned a Fr29 million loss into a Fr42.3 million profit last year. Orders rose marginally to Fr6.8 billion. Automation and information technology subsidi aries brought group profits to Fr63.6 million against a loss of Fr40 million in 1990. Meanwhile, the Sextant Avi- onique joint venture set up by Thomson-CSF and Aerospatiale reported a 6.7% drop in sales to Fr5.6 billion for 1991. The com pany is expected to report a Fr500 million loss for the year. Orderbooks also suffered, de clining 7.5% to end the year at Fr4.9 billion. D Italy moves to end trainer rivalry Only a single Italian pro gramme for a new genera tion of advanced jet trainer is expected to survive if Siai Marchetti is absorbed by its long-time rival, Aermacchi, in the shake-up now going on in the Italian aerospace industry. The Agusta group, which is involved in a major restructur ing, including 2,000 lay-offs, has said that it plans to dispose of its Siai Marchetti fixed-wing trainer and utility aircraft interests to concentrate on the group's core helicopter business (Flight Inter national, 8-14 March). A new company is to be set up to Investigate the possibility of merging Siai Marchetti into Aer macchi, under plans being dis cussed by Aermacchi and the two giant state holding compa nies, Efim and Finmeccanica. Through the complex web of inter-company relationships within the Italian industry, Efim is the parent of Agusta, while Finmeccanica controls..] the Alenia group, which in tuun has a 26% stake in Aermacchi.'_; The plan now is for each of the public holding companies to take a 46% share in the new company, with Aermacchi hold ing the remaining 8%. This jointly-held company will look for ways to rationalise Italy's competing jet-trainer program mes. Italy is the only European country to support two rival ones; a re-organisation has been discussed for some time but without result. Efim's earlier re quest for Finmeccanica to buy Siai Marchetti was refused. Aermacchi and Siai Marchetti have competed strongly on in ternational and domestic mar kets with their rival MB.339 and S.211 jet trainers, leaving the Italian Government unable to select a single national cham pion. Now the assets of the two companies could be merged, pos sibly heralding the start of co operation on the new generation of PTS-2000 advanced trainers. • Aermacchi saw net profits slump from L7 billion ($5.6 million) to L5 billion in 1991 as the company felt the effects of recession in military markets. The company ended the year with sales of L360 billion and an order backlog of LI,000 billion. • Finmeccanica has acquired a further 10% of Alenia's shares, taking its holding in the aero space group to 87.44%. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8 - 14 April, 1992 17
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
