DAIMLER WILL NOT UPSET EADS VOTING BALANCE
SHAREHOLDING The French-German balance of shareholder voting rights in Airbus parent EADS is to remain in place following a decision by Germany's Daimler not to exercise its option to end a 2007 agreement that set its voting rights at 22.5%, on a par with those held by the French Sogeade consortium of Lagardère and the French government. An additional 5.48% voting share is held by Spanish government holding company SEPI, leaving 49.6% of the voting rights with shares traded freely.
GENESIS SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE AERCAP MERGER
MERGER Shareholders of Genesis Lease approved the Irish lessor's merger with AerCap, to create the world's third-biggest lessor by fleet size. The all-share deal, valued at $1.75 billion based on the Genesis balance sheet and expected to close last week, creates a combined company called AerCap with a total fleet of 358 commercial aircraft and 83 engines owned or managed.
BUILD RATE BOOST FOR BOEING PRICE
INVESTMENT Boeing's plans to accelerate 777 and 747 build rates to meet demand has won approval from Wells Fargo bank, which raised its valuation of the airframer by 13% to between $70 and $75 per share, for a total price tag of $53-57 billion.
ENGINE LEASING JOINT VENTURE POWERS UP
FINANCE DVB Bank, Mitsubishi UK and Engine Lease Finance have formed a joint engine leasing company. Deucalion MC Engine Leasing is incorporated in Ireland and starts in business with seven IAE V2500, CFM56-5/-7 and CF6-80 engines acquired from ELFC.
EXPORTS DRIVE RECORD PROFITS AT RAFAEL
DEFENCE Net profits at Rafael Advanced Defense Systems rocketed 143% to $112 million last year, as sales edged up 5% to $1.6 billion. The Israeli weapons maker attributed its record year to exports, adding that finance revenue, including profits on investment portfolios, accounts for about one-third of net profit.
BOC AVIATION PROFIT UP 28% IN 2009
LEASING Singapore-based aircraft lessor BOC Aviation posted a 28% growth in net profit to $137 million in 2009. It increased its owned and managed fleet from 92 aircraft to 142 and absorbed $100 million equity investment from its parent, Bank of China.
DEFENCE SAVES DAY FOR IAI
RESULTS At Israel Aerospace Industries, faltering civil markets pushed net profits down by one-third to $61 million as 2009 sales dipped by nearly one-fifth to $2.9 billion. Defence sales lifted the backlog as of year-end by 11%, to $7.9 billion.
US CARRIERS CONTINUE TO SEE REVENUE GAINS
AIRLINES Passenger revenues grew for the second month in a row, by 4.5%, for US carriers in February after 14 consecutive months of faltering sales, according to the Air Transport Association of America. A 2.9% drop in passenger numbers was blamed on bad weather.
GERMANS CONSIDER MOSCOW MRO ACQUISITION
MAINTENANCE Lufthansa Technik and Air Berlin's in-house maintenance division are considering offers to acquire Russian service provider Domodedovo-Technik. Its capabilities include C checks on Boeing 737s and line maintenance on Airbus A320s.
Source: Flight International
