Australian light-aircraft manufacturer Skyfox Aviation will either be sold or seek a shareholder to invest additional funding. It manufactures the Skyfox Gazelle at the rate on one aircraft a week, and holds an order backlog representing several months' worth of production (Flight International, 28 May-3 June).
Brian Irving, the outside administrator overseeing operations at Skyfox, says that the company is now operating under a deed of arrangement which arose from a "voluntary administration" request by the directors, to obtain a creditor moratorium similar to the US Chapter 11 process, "-to give them an opportunity to seek additional capital funding, but, at the same time, it has been put up for sale as a going concern".
Irving says that deposits and advance payments on aircraft orders are protected, and that product support is uninterrupted. "We have already held discussions with a number of foreign parties interested in investing," he says.
Existing staff and management remain in place, and Irving says that the preference is for an equity partner. "Such an injection of share capital in the company would put it in a much stronger position to increase its production capacity and to look at additional overseas markets, which it hasn't been able to do at this stage because of under-capitalisation," he says.
The Gazelle is certificated under the European Joint Aviation Requirements for very-light aircraft. The company has built more than 170 aircraft, including the earlier tailwheel version which is still available.
Source: Flight International
