Russia’s Sukhoi, Italy to Sign Deal on 1,800 Superjet Planes — Sources

MosNews

A unit of Italy’s aerospace company Finmecchanica and Russia’s biggest warplane maker Sukhoi will sign a deal to jointly build up to 1,800 Superjet regional aircraft over a period of 20 years. This information was reported on Monday, March 12, by Reuters agency, which quoted Italian diplomatic sources.

The source said that the deal could be worth as much as 70 billion euros ($91.9 billion) over 20 years. However, Sukhoi official cautioned that talk had been of 800-1,000 Superjets, with a likely maximum value of 19 billion euros ($25 billion).

Alenia (Finmeccanica’s unit) will also obtain a blocking stake of 25 percent plus one share in Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Co., the civil plane-making division of the Russian company, the Sukhoi official said. That allows it to veto the venture’s board decisions.

The deals are set to be signed on Wednesday, March 14, during an Italian-Russian summit in the southern Italian city of Bari, which brings together Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi and several top political and business leaders from the two countries.

A Finmecannica spokeswoman declined to comment.

MosNews has reported on previous occasions that Sukhoi is developing the Superjet 100 regional aircraft together with U.S. airplane maker Boeing at its civil aircraft division.

The Superjet aircraft, which will seat between 75 and 100 passengers, is to replace Russia’s fast ageing Soviet-made fleet of Tupolev Tu-134 and Yakovlev Yak-42 planes on domestic routes. Other carriers have also shown interest in the new plane.

Large-scale production is due to start in 2008.

The Italian diplomatic source said Alenia would be responsible for construction of between 25 and 50 percent of the aircraft, adding that these details still had to be worked out. Alenia would also be responsible for 51 percent of the commercialization of the plane, the diplomat said.

A Sukhoi official, however, cast doubt on the value of the contract provided by the Italian diplomat. “There must be definitely a mistake. It’s a clear exaggeration,” he said, quoted by Reuters. “Yes, the talk had been originally about building between 800 and 1,000 Superjet aircraft in about 20 years until 2025. But if you take an average catalogue price of $25 million per jet, it only takes you to up to $25 billion (19 billion euros),” he added.

Separately, the Sukhoi official said there was no legal obstacle left in signing a deal for Alenia’s purchase of a blocking stake.

Russian and Italian industry ministers agreed on the stake purchase in April 2006, but it has taken nearly a year to move to the final signing stage after removing legal hurdles. Foreigners are not legally allowed to buy blocking stakes in Russian defense firms.