TIM RIPLEY
Intense discussions are taking place at Le Bourget to link the Italian military aircraft industry with EADS. Finmeccanica executives say they are prepared to work through the summer to ensure that the setting up of the so-called European Military Aircraft Company joint venture is "done right", bringing a year of negotiations to a successful conclusion.
Alberto de Benedictis, Finmeccanica senior vice-president for business development, says: "We always set deadlines and never met them. When you do a joint venture you really want to discuss and regulate everything in advance, so nothing is left to chance.
Tricky
"Once you're tied up in a joint venture it is tricky if you have open issues. Working groups are meeting as we speak. We have worked through summer in the past, so there¹s no reason why we should not do it on this."
He says the issue of competing products in the partners' portfolios is "not significant". It is also still part of Finmeccanica's plans to gain a 100% share-holding in Aermacchi and bring it into the new joint venture. EMAC is just a working title and a new name will be used once the company is formed, he says.
The new company could be a strong competitor because of the breadth of its position in the European scenario, he says. It will hold 63% of the Eurofighter EF2000 programme and 60% in the Panavia Tornado. "This is a not dead programme - a midlife upgrade is coming up. "The new company will be supported by four governments so it will never be excluded from a programme [in Europe].
"Aerospace and defence will be a prime driver for Finmeccanica's growth in next several years," he says. "A number of issues tell us we can expect modernisation of new equipment and investment in research and development.
Market
"If your have quality products that meet customer requirements, you always have a market. We are in a comfortable position."
Our strategy is to position ourselves in a network of joint ventures," he says. "The joint venture's positioning in the global market is what is driving our participation."
Aeronautics is one of the best performers in Finmeccanica with a 14% operating profit "We intend to keep it that way," he says. "A lot of new product are taking off, driving business." de Benedictis predicted continued growth in the defence sector, with Finmeccanica having a bigger defence business than EADS.
He admits Finmeccanica's radar, training and defence electronics joint venture with BAE Systems, Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS), is not meeting its financial targets. "It is not a mystery. It has had heavy restructuring for the past year. It is improving; this year will be better than last year, and next year better than this year."
Source: Flight Daily News
