An-140 stands to benefit from venture (250 words)

Published: 8/2/2001

ANTK Antonov and OAO Holding Company Leninets (St Petersburg) have signed an agreement to create a JV that will be responsible for the upgrade of Antonov aircraft and the development of new designs. According to Leninets, one of the priorities of the new JV will be the upgrade and modifications of the An-140 that has recently been struggling to get into production at both its producers, Kharkov-based KhGAPP and Samara-based Aviakor, with Aviakor announcing recently that it was suspending the development of production. However, the focus of Leninets' interest appears to be the licensed production of the An-140 as the IRAN-140 IAMI in Ishfahan, in association with KhGAPP, with the assembly of 12 aircraft planned by 2004. At the initial stages, the JV will include only Leninets and Antonov, but the companies say that other Russian companies have expressed an interest in participating. Since the beginning of 2001, Leninets has already been supplying new avionics to ANTK Antonov for the An-124 and An-225. OAO Holding Company Leninets was created as a result of the privatisation of NPO Leninets in 1992 and unites 37 subsidiaries with an interest of 38% in each subsidiary. Most of them develop and produce electronic systems for the Russian Ministry of Defence, along with avionics and guidance systems for including missiles. The company's current shareholders are as follows: Individuals - 50.008% OOO Nikei - 19.83% OOO Karina - 15.33% AOZT Finist - 6.30% Republic of Karelia - 4.50%.

Article ID: 2679