ELEVEN POTENTIAL buyers, including Fairchild Aircraft and three other unidentified regional-aircraft majors, are talking to Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) about taking a majority stake in Dornier Luftfahrt.
According to Gunter Pfeiffer, deputy head of the works council at Dornier's Oberpfaffenhofen site, negotiations could lead to an 80% take-over of DASA's turboprop subsidiary. Fairchild officials have been visiting Dornier since the beginning of April, and are expected to complete a report on the company by the end of the month.
DASA declines to confirm Fairchild's interest, but says that it is in talks with potential partners.
"We have negotiations on the basis that as many jobs as possible should be saved by the new majority shareholder, and that the [Dornier 328] programme should have continuity," says DASA. The company adds that it cannot say at this stage whether there will be further job cuts at Dornier on top of those already included in DASA's sweeping "Dolores" restructuring plan.
Half of Dornier's 1,000-strong 328 production staff are already on short working hours following the company's loss, to Saab Aircraft, of a potentially lucrative order for 72 aircraft for US regional Mesaba.
Dornier Luftfahrt recorded a loss of around DM499 million ($337.1 million) in 1995 on sales of DM990 million. The company is reportedly losing as much as $1 million on every 328 sold at the $9.7 million list price.
On 15 April, more than 10,000 workers at DASA sites in Germany staged walkouts in protest at the company's restructuring plans, which envisage cutting the group's workforce by 8,800 and aim to restore profitability by 1998 with a dollar rate as low as DM1.35.
The protesters point out that the dollar rate has risen recently to around DM1.5 and that a rush of orders has forced Airbus Industrie to raise production rates to record levels. They argue that the restructuring plan should be revised. DASA counters that it is impossible to predict the dollar's behaviour in the longer term.
Source: Flight International
