Julian Moxon/PARIS
State-owned Snecma is facing possible privatisation this year following a string of acquisitions and continued strong commercial engine sales. The French company is also closing on an alliance with other European engine manufacturers.
Although Snecma president Jean-Paul Béchat insists that privatisation is "not about to happen", France's minister for economy, finance and industry, Laurent Fabius, gave a strong hint late last year of a government plan to release the manufacturer into the private sector. Béchat himself concedes that his company is "in exceptionally good shape and if the government sees a good opportunity for us to develop it will clearly take it", while saying he has no "road map" for privatisation.
Béchat also confirms that Snecma is continuing talks with Germany's MTU, Italy's Fiat Avio and Sweden's Volvo over a major pan-European tie-up. "Our majority shareholder is encouraging us to look for a grand European alliance," he says. "We must find industry partners to reinforce our position in Europe. But we're not there yet."
Last year, Béchat completed the acquisition of thrust reverser/nacelle and equipment manufacturer Hurel Dubois and took over Labinal, which includes French small engine manufacturers Turbomeca and Microturbo. The company also bought into French diesel aero-engine company SMA and announced the merger of solid rocket fuel manufacturer SNPE with its SNP engine division.
The moves left Snecma with sales of Fr45 billion ($6.5 billion) in 2000, up 16%. Some 84% of sales came from the civil sector and 72% export - reflecting the continued strong performance of its CFM-56 engines business, which took a record 1,072 orders and holds a three-year backlog at a 1,000 engines/year delivery rate.
Source: Flight International
