Andrea Spinelli/GENOA Kevin O'Toole/LONDON
ALENIA IS close to agreeing an alliance with McDonnell Douglas (MDC) which could see the Italian aerospace group take a stake of around 15% in MDC's commercial-aircraft business.
Negotiations have been going on for at least six months, but have intensified over the past few weeks, with a series of high-level management meetings, on either side of the Atlantic. Neither side has made an official comment on the state of the talks, but an announcement is expected soon, possibly by the end of this month.
A deal is "not very far away" and will "certainly be signed this year" says an Italian source, adding that MDC is now meeting with Italian managers in the USA.
Alenia's parent group, the state-owned Finmeccanica holding company, is expected to take a stake of 10-15%, worth around $500 million, in the Douglas Aircraft operation, which would be established as an independent company within the MDC group. Earlier speculation had suggested that the Italian stake could be as high as 20%.
MDC has been seeking risk-sharing partners for at least four years, to strengthen its ailing commercial aircraft business. In 1991 it announced a plan to sell a 40% share in the business to Taiwan Aerospace for $2 billion, but the deal collapsed. The launch of a new high-capacity MD-12 was also envisaged within the deal.
Since then, MDC has seen its share of jet-airliner deliveries plummet to less than 10% of the world market, while its forward order book has been hit heavily by cancellations (see opposite page).
MDC has since slashed costs at its Long Beach plant and reined back on new investment, raising speculation that it might be preparing to quit the airliner market.
Even with the Alenia alliance, MDC is likely to need further partners to help fund the launch of any major new aircraft.
For Alenia the deal should help to secure badly needed work for its commercial-aircraft manufacturing lines. Although the Italian group has some work from other manufacturers, such as a 1% share on the Boeing 777 and fuselage parts for the Airbus A321, the bulk of its commercial work centres on subcontracting for MDC.
That was reinforced at the end of 1994 with an agreement to handle major fuselage sections for the MD-95 if it is launched.
In November, final assembly of the proposed 100-seater MD-95 was subcontracted to Texas maintenance firm Dalfort Aviation.
Source: Flight International
