Possible French-Romanian helicopter developments

Published: 3/7/2000

Romania's main privatisation agency, the State Ownership Fund (FPS) has announced that it hopes to start negotiations on the sell-off of a 70% stake in local aircraft maker Intreprinderea Aeronautica Romania (IAR) to European helicopter consortium Eurocopter. Potentially leading to joint French -Romanian helicopter ventures according to local sources, after the visit of senior French officials last week. The FRS received the bid from Eurocopter, on February 28th 2000 and although the pricing of the deal was not revealed, earlier reports estimate the value of the stake to be around US$150m, although it seems likely the current bid will be considerably lower. The FRS has until March 9th to check the validity of Eurocopter's bid. The FPS relaunched the privatisation of IAR last month, following a failed series of negotiations with Bell Textron to buy a majority stake in the company to co-produce a local version of the 96 Cobra AH-1 attack helicopters, the 'Dracula' for the Romanian army. It also appears that the Eurocopter bid is the only one on the table and that the expected bid from Romanian group, Grivco International has failed to materialise. According to local sources the Grivco relationship with the FPS had deteriorated after they requested that the tender be postponed in November. IAR already has a production agreement with Eurocopter for production of the AS-350 at its plant near the Transylvanian town of Brasov. Other shareholders besides the state include a local investment company SIF Transylvania 4.93%, the mass privatisation programme 20.05% and private individuals 5.02%. Associated articles: 70% of IAR Brasov for sale www.concise.org 26 January 2000; IAR Brasov approaches privatisation without Bell www.concise.org 6 October 1999; Aerostar awaits bidders www.concise.org 28 December 1999

Article ID: 1518