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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1697.PDF
HEADLINES BUSINESS Sener buys shareholding inlTP Spanish engineering firm Sener has acquired an indirect 26.5% shareholding in engine manu facturer Industria de Turbo Propulsores (ITP) from Spanish state holding company SEPI for €66 million ($80 million), writes Rainer Uphoff in Madrid. ITP is a risk-sharing and con tract partner for several major engine programmes, including the Rolls-Royce Trent family of engines as well as the Honeywell AS900, plus military powerplants for the Eurofighter Typhoon and Airbus Military A400M. Last December Sener exer cised a preferential right to buy SEPI's stake in the joint holding company Turbo 2000, which owns 53% of ITR and now effec tively controls the company. Rolls-Royce owns the remaining 47% of ITR The 53% share package has now been transferred from Turbo 2000 to a newly constituted holding company, Sener Aeronautica, in which US invest ment company Lehman Brothers Private Equity has acquired an 18% holding. A fur ther 10% has been acquired by Spanish risk capital fund Socade. Sener says the new capital structure and the backing of Lehman Brothers and Socade are "very important", and adds: "We will continue to develop strongly ITP's research and development capacities, its pro duction capacity and an increasing and balanced partici pation in civil and military markets." Lehman Brothers has been the adviser during the privatisation process. BUSINESS CRAIG HOYLE / LONDON Typhoon nod expected as BAE sees profits rise Manufacturer anticipates UK MoD decision on Eurofighter Tranche 2 by year-end BAE Systems' senior executive team has issued a sound set of financial results for the first half of this year and predicts continued improve ment in the company's prospects. Company sources also say the UK Ministry of Defence is close to concluding approval for Tranche 2 production of the Eurofighter Typhoon. The project is vital for BAE's Programmes business group, which has been hit by over-runs to the Typhoon, Nimrod MRA4 and Astute submarine projects. BAE's head of Typhoon business Steve Mogford says much progress has been made on Tranche 2 nego tiations, and "it is still feasible to get a conclusion by year-end". Eurofighter warned earlier this year that the four-nation project was in danger of a costly gap in produc tion, but Mogford says Tranche 1 will now be realigned to maintain a "drumbeat" in production. Some planned Tranche 2 capabilities, such as air-to-surface weapons and a targeting pod, will be introduced towards the end of Tranche 1 pro duction, he says, meeting a key demand of the UK MoD (Flight International, 10-16 August). But BAE chief executive Mike Turner says the Tranche 2 deal will be finalised only when the terms are "suitable for our shareholders, the company and the MoD". BAE recorded pre-tax profits of £486 million ($860 million) on first-half sales of £6.1 billion, up from respective totals of £465 mil lion and £5.7 billion last year. A strong performance was logged in the Commercial Aerospace sector through BAE's 20% stake in Airbus, and its North America business unit met a 10% organic growth target. BAE expects to complete its 2005 strategic plan in November - its first under the chairmanship of for mer BP deputy chief executive Dick Olver. A key strategy will be to con tinue BAE's current growth in the USA through further acquisitions. SPACEFLIGHT TIM FURNISS / LONDON NASA confident on comet probe NASA is playing down concerns about the January 2006 return of the comet probe Stardust despite similarities with the Genesis sam ple-return capsule that crashed to Earth on 8 September after its para chutes failed to open - thwarting much-publicised plans to capture the canister in mid-air. The 205kg (4501b) capsule con taining 30 micrograms of solar wind particles crashed into the Utah desert at 310km/h after fail ing to deploy its drogue parachute, which was to have extracted a parafoil. A helicopter was waiting to snag the parafoil and retrieve the capsule in mid-air. The failure may have been caused by a battery problem detected soon after launch on the $264 million mission in August 2001. The samples, captured over months in space on fragile hexagonal silicon-wafer arrays, are likely to be conta minated. The capsule's para chutes were supplied by Pioneer Aero space, which also provided the parachutes for the Stardust mission to return samples from the tail of comet Wild-2. NASA is less concerned about its Stardust capsule because it is designed for a soft landing in the Utah desert. The Genesis capsule after its impact in Utah Genesis was intended to recover pure material from the Sun. "Whether we can recover any of the science from this remains to be seen," says Chris Jones, director of solar system exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. AIR TRANSPORT PAUL DUFFY / MOSCOW Russia's Pulkovo Airlines to merge with state transport company Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a decree ordering the merger of government-owned Pulkovo Airlines with state trans port company Rossiya. The merger will take about a year to complete, because the first step will require the separation of Pulkovo into two units, the airline division and the airport in St Petersburg. Last year Pulkovo - Russia's third- largest commercial airline - carried more than 2.4 million passengers, while Rossiya carried 481,000, mak ing it the 13th-largest. Both airlines have large fleets of Soviet era types, although Pulkovo is poised to issue a request for pro posals for up 20 Western aircraft, likely to be Airbus A320 family or Boeing 737 Classic/Next Generation models. Rossiya's main role is to provide executive trans port for government personnel. 6 14-20 SEPTEMBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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