Senior Snecma executives expect GE, its partner in the highly successful CFM International turbofan engine joint venture, to buy "at least 10%" of Snecma when the French government finally carries out the privatisation of the company, says Jean-Claude Lepage, president of Snecma subsidiary Labinal.
However, Lepage ruled out any possibility of a GE takeover of Snecma, whose Initial Public Offering (IPO) last month was "substantially oversubscribed", with 57% of the company's French employees becoming shareholders. Meanwhile "negotiations are still ongoing" with GE over the form of the relationship between the two companies for the production of the new engine for Boeing's 7E7, says Jean-Paul B‚chat, Snecma chairman and chief executive.
CFM56 sales of 387 units in the first half of 2004 are on target to hit the full-year target of between 700 and 750 units, and have been bolstered by big A320 sales from Virgin America and China Southern.
Snecma also announced that the advanced CFM56-7B engine will power the US Navy's new Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). The US Navy aircraft development contract could eventually include up to 108 aircraft.
CFM International will this year celebrate the 30th anniversary of its formation in 1974 as a 50:50 joint venture. CFM has since supplied more than 14,200 CFM56 engines to 392 customers.
"We're just getting started," says Pierre Fabre, president and chief executive of CFM.
Source: Flight Daily News