THE RUSSIAN Government has decided to sell 37% of its shares in Rybinsk Motors as a single package. The ruling by Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin ends a two-year dispute over the shares between the local and federal authorities, which run the company.
The company manufactures the D-30 jet engines which power Ilyushin Il-62Ms, Il-76s and Tupolev Tu-154Ms, and is preparing to start production of the A-12 derivative of the Aviadvigatel PS-90, which will power the Yakovlev Yak-242.
Natural-gas supplier Gazprom, one of Russia's richest privatised companies, is expected to bid for the stake and plans to use Rybinsk for the manufacture of gas-turbine-pumping stations for its pipelines.
Other possible investors could include General Electric, which has signed a joint-venture agreement with the Russian manufacturer.
Valery Shelgunov, Rybinsk Motors' general director, has expressed his dissatisfaction at the decision, saying that the company's projects to modernise its engines now had "...little chance of being included in the state programme for development of civil aviation".
Gazprom says that, "only the attraction of private investment will prevent Rybinsk's bankruptcy".
Source: Flight International
