Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE
THE SOUTH KOREAN Government and aerospace industry, are playing down speculation, that they are mounting a serious effort to buy all or part of the financially stricken Fokker group.
Officials from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy, as well as industrial giant Samsung, have denied that any formal consideration is being given to the idea. "Samsung has no serious intention to take over Fokker now," says the ministry's aerospace-industry director, Lee Wongul.
He adds that it will have "no impact" on long-running negotiations with China to develop a new 100-seat regional aircraft. It has been suggested that acquiring Dutch technology and transferring production of the Fokker 100 and 70 would offer South Korea an alternative to the AE-100 project.
Samsung Aerospace has said that it is "interested" in Fokker and that discussions had already been initiated with the Dutch manufacturer. A company source cautions that a "full financial assessment of Fokker has not yet been made".
Discussions, however, appear to be taking place at a working level within the company's Aerospace division, rather than with the Samsung board.
According to a company insider, Samsung's initial expression of interest was designed primarily to head off a potential tie-up between Fokker and rival South Korean conglomerate Hyundai.
Hyundai has a history of large-scale industrial acquisitions, particularly in the semi-conductor business, and is keen to expand into aerospace. Local observers, however, doubt that it has the manpower or resources to take on Fokker.
In the meantime, Indonesian manufacturer Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara has ruled itself out of the bidding, despite earlier reports that it was interested in the Netherlands manufacturer.
Source: Flight International
