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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 0016.PDF
BUSINESS Aeroperu sell-off to start again The sale of a 70% share in Peruvian flag carrier Aer operu to a consortium of Compania de Aviacion Faucett and the Naviera Santa shipping line has been de clared null and void. The Peruvian Government had announced that the two companies, both owned by Roberto Leigh, had won with its $41 million offer. Rival contender for the deal, AeroMexico, contested the decision on legal grounds, but Peru says that both bids contained technical irregulari ties. The sale will be con ducted again later this month. It is not yet known whether Iberia, which had dropped out, will re-bid. D AVUADI announces restructure in bid to cut down costs AWA Defence Industries (AWADI) has announced a major restructuring of its busi ness and a review of activities and procedures. The move is aimed at saving the Australian company A$8 million ($5.5 mil lion) a year. Business units are being set up, covering product develop ment, aerospace, manufacturing, business development, servicing and support, project engineering and systems integration. AWADI chief executive Peter Smith says that the changes will allow the company to develop new strate gic alliances and industrial part ners in Australia and overseas. The new systems-integration organisation's responsibilities will include prime-contractor ac tivities on the upgrade of the Royal Australian Air Force's Lockheed P-3C Orions' elec tronic-support-measures sys tems. The company's present airways and air-traffic-control activities will be formed into a separate operating unit, which Smith says will seek expansion through acquisition and co operative teaming. • Dassault and Aerospatiale link up BY GILBERT SEDBON • IN PARIS Dassault and Aerospatiale are to link their activities, al though the move falls short of a full merger. The agreement comes after years of pressure from the French Government for the country's leading aerospace concerns to forge closer ties. Aerospatiale is 100% state- owned and has a 37.9% stake in the Airbus consortium, as well as stakes in ventures in helicop ters and missile manufacturing. Dassault Aviation is privately owned, but 46% state-con trolled, and is best known for its Mirage fighters and Falcon cor porate jets. Both companies have been hit hard by declining or ders and fierce competition. In a package integrating both companies under a state holding company, Dassault and Aerospa tiale will pool their technologi cal and industrial resources, co operate in research and develop ment on major civil and military programmes and co-ordinate their medium- and long-term strategy and commercial poli cies. The holding company is Societe de Gestion de Participa tions Aeronautiques (SOGEPA), which has been dormant since its inception in, 1977, when the French Government intended using the concern as a vehicle to take control of Dassault. SOGEPA already holds 20% of Dassault and will receive an other 16% share. Under the new agreement, the French Govern ment will transfer part of its 72% ownership of Aerospatiale to boost SOGEPA's present 7% holding, but will retain a 10% stake directly in Dassault — ...to the Airbus A330, via Aerospatiale link-up ensuring Us own seat on the board. State-run bank Credit Lyonnais will come in with fresh funds and a 20% stake in Aerospatiale. Aerospatiale's chairman and chief executive officer, Louis Gal- Dassault Rafale: lois, becomes president of SOGEPA, while Dassault chairman and chief ex ecutive officer Serge Dassault becomes vice-president of the new company. Both, as SOGEPA representatives, will be sitting on each other's boards and each company will have three repre sentatives on SOGEPA's ruling strategic committee. The companies claim that the tie-up preserves their identities and independence and say that they are merely building on ex isting co-operation. The agree ment, however, paves the way for a fuller merger and it is likely to strengthen considerably the hand of France's new aero space conglomerate in interna tional negotiations. The agreement creating the new alliance was signed on 17 September, 1992, by Gallois and Dassault, but was made public only at the end of December. The combined sales of Aero spatiale and Dassault Aviation in 1991 totalled Fr63 billion ($11.9 billion). Aerospatiale reported a loss of Fr477 million for the first half of 1992 and has announced that it will cut 1,150 jobs in 1993. Dassault says that its prof its plunged by almost one-third in 1991, to Fr263.9 million. The Dassault family, with its powerful govern ment and parlia mentary lobby, had beaten off take-over attempts in the past decade, but finally yielded only when Das sault consolidated his position as his group's chairman after succeeding his father, the late Marcel Dassault, becoming more closely related.. six years ago. He also secured Government authorisation and funding for production of the Rafale combat aircraft. In all, the state controls 46% of Dassault shares and 55% of its voting rights, with the balance held by the Dassault family or traded on the Paris Bourse. D MDC plans to sell Laser Systems McDonnell Douglas (MDC) plans to sell its Laser Sys tems division or find a joint- venture partner for the unit, which manufactures diode- pumped solid-state lasers. The division employs about 250 people in St Louis, Missouri, and had 1992 revenues of about $16 million. Major contracts in clude rangefinder/designators for the Nighthawk sighting system and the laser altimeter for NASA's Mars Observer. Laser Systems "...is a leader in its field and...a partnership with the right party, either through a sale or joint-venture arrange ment, will further improve its growth opportunities", says MDC executive vice-president Kenneth Francis. MDC has so far sold its Sys tems Integration company to EDS, reached agreement to sell its Visual Simulation Systems unit to FlightSafety International and put McDonnell Douglas Helicopters up for sale. The company is transferring data-processing work from its Aerospace Information Systems division to IBM's Integrated Sys tems Solutions subsidiary. The agreement calls for IBM to offer jobs to 1,400 MDC staff. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 6 - 12 January. 1993
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