Investment Capital "Pared Down" On Fall Of Russian Stocks
ANN REALTIME REPORTING 10.29.08 1600 EDT:
Aero-News has been chasing down numerous News-Spy tips over the
past 18 hours, stating Englewood, CO-based AAI Acquisition Inc. --
which purchased the assets of the former Adam Aircraft out of
bankruptcy earlier this year -- shut its doors Monday and laid off
workers. Calls to AAI headquarters and personnel for information
have gone unanswered.
ANN has since confirmed the company is cutting back operations
rather severely. While AAI isn't technically out of business, the
company has "suspended all flight testing and further development"
on the A700 twinjet, according to Robert Olislagers, Executive
Director for the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority at
Centennial Airport (APA), home to AAI's headquarters.
"It appears investment capital has been pared down... due to
last week's fall of the Russian stock market," said Olislagers, who
added he had been unaware of any layoffs at AAI until he visited
the company's headquarters himself Tuesday "after I received
[ANN's] phone call."
Olislagers said company officials reassured him AAI is
"definitely NOT closing its doors," and is still receiving
investment capital... though substantially less than originally
planned.
Exact figures on the number of layoffs number were not released,
though Olislagers said it appears "most" workers at AAI were laid
off Monday, though the company did retain "a number of senior
engineers."
A formal announcement from AAI is planned later Tuesday,
Olislagers added.
As ANN reported, Adam Aircraft filed for
Chapter 7 liquidation on February 15. Two months later, the US
Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado approved the sale of Adam's assets to AAI
Acquisition, Inc., a Delaware corporation backed
financially by the Russian-controlled Industrial Investors group of
companies.
AAI kept relatively quiet about its plans until Oshkosh, when
company President and CEO Jack Braly announced AAI planned to
continue development of the A700 very-light jet and see it through
to certification, expected early in 2010. The company discontinued
production of the jet's predecessor, the problematic A500 inline
twin-engine piston aircraft.
During the NBAA 2008 convention earlier this month, Braly
said AAI employed about 200 people at its facilities at
APA -- many of them former Adam Aircraft workers. The company had
originally planned to double its workforce by the end of the
year... but that was before the bottom fell out of the US stock
market, affecting markets and investors around the world.