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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0278.PDF
HEADLINES Aerospatiale 'must talk' to Dassault FRENCH DEFENCE minis ter Charles Millon has told rivals Aerospatiale and Dassault to open talks about a merger. "I have told the presidents of each that they must begin talks," he says. Millon made the comments in an interview with French financial newspaper Les Echos, in which he talks about the need for national companies to have "critical mass" to withstand the forthcoming defence cuts and increasing com petition from the USA. An alliance will not be easy, however — previous governments have twice failed to force the two together, while as recently as De cember, Dassault president Serge Dassault made it clear that he had no intention of merging with Aerospatiale. "We have nothing in common," he said. The business scenario for a merger is unclear, Aerospatiale being state-owned, while Dassault is private. One possibility is that cash-rich Dassault could come up with the FrlO billion ($2 billion) needed by Aerospatiale for recapi talisation, adding a loan of Fr5 bil lion to complete the acquisition. • Spain picks Cougar for army requirement THE SPANISH defence min istry has selected the Euro- copter Cougar for its army transport-helicopter requirement. The order, for 15 machines, has yet to be approved by the Gov ernment, however. Spain's air force already oper ates 15 Super Pumas (from which the Cougar is derived), but the army deal was nevertheless hotly contested by Sikorsky, offering the Black Hawk. The choice is as much political as technical, Eurocopter having made a powerful offset offer bene fiting Spanish aerospace. Under the deal, France has agreed to buy seven CASA CN2 3 5 transports, while CASA will also receive about 40% of the fuselage work on the Cougars. The Spanish sub sidiary of France's Thomson-CSF will also be involved in the supply of simulators. • Samsung has left Fokker waiting as it denies formal interest in the Dutch manufacturer Samsung cool on Fokker PAUL LEWIS/SINGAPORE THE SOUTH KOREAN Government and aerospace industry are playing down specula tion that they are mounting a seri ous effort to buy all or part of the financially stricken Fokker group. Officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, as well as industrial giant Samsung, have denied that any formal considera tion is being given to the idea. "Samsung has no serious intention to take over Fokker now," says the ministry's aerospace-industry dir ector, Lee Won-gul. He adds that it will have "no impact" on long-running negotia tions witfi China to develop a new 100-seat regional aircraft. It has been suggested that acquiring Dutch technology and transferring production of the Fokker 100 and 70 would offer South Korea an alternative to the AE-100 project. Samsung Aerospace has said that it is"interested" in Fokker and that discussions had already been initi ated with the Dutch manufacturer. A company source cautions that a "full financial assessment of Fokker has not yet been made". Discussions, however, appear to be taking place at a working level within the the company's Aero space division, rather than with the Samsung board. According to a company insider, Samsung's initial expression of interest was designed primarily to head off a potential tie-up between Fokker and rival South Korean conglomerate Hyundai. Hyundai has a history of large- scale industrial acquisitions, partic ularly in the semi-conductor business, and is keen to expand into aerospace. Local observers, howev er, doubt that it has the manpower or resources to take on Fokker. In the meantime, Indonesian manufacturer Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara has ruled itself out of the bidding, despite earlier reports that it was interested in the Netherlands manufacturer. Q MTU remains shy of BMW R-R merger ANDRZEJ JEZIORSKI/MUNICH DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace's (DASA's) aero-engine sub sidiary MTU Munchen has damp ened speculation that it is to be merged with BMW Rolls-Royce. Although the move has not been entirely ruled out, the company says that it is unlikely. Links will be tightened through parts-manufac turing contracts, says MTU. Speculation over the future of MTU heightened in the wake of DASA's recent withdrawal of fur ther financial support for Dutch subsidiary Fokker (Flight Inter national, 31 January-6 February). The torturous negotiations be tween the two German companies over an engine tie-up have been hampered by MTU's contractual commitments to strategic partner Pratt & Whitney. BMW made an offer in the third quarter of 1995 to buy parts of MTU, but has yet to receive a for mal answer. Despite MTU's caution, BMW does not see this as an outright rejection of its purchase offer. "It looks as if MTU has no opportuni ty to act [on the offer], and so they are waiting. We are not really in a hurry," says BMW. BMW R-R still hopes that MTU will manufacture the low- pressure turbine for its BR715. The two companies are already co operating in engine-technology programmes funded by the Ger man Government. One major hurdle to co-opera tion has been removed with the apparent withdrawal of MTU from the joint programme with P&W to produce the PW6000. That engine, in the 65-105kN (15,000-24,0001b)-thrust class, is a direct rival for BMW R-R's BR700 family. P&W adds that it will "...work to accommodate any change in the structure of the German industry", as long as MTU continues to fulfil its contractual obligations. MTU and P&W are co-operating in engine programmes such as the PW2000, PW4084, PW305 and PW306. • 6 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 February 1996
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