RN-Aircraft Plans To Acquire Additional Twenty AgustaWestland AW189 Aircraft

An agreement has been signed between Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Rostec and Rosneft for the future sale of additional twenty AgustaWestland AW189 commercial helicopters to RN-Aircraft, a subsidiary of the oil company Rosneft. The new helicopters will be used for transportation purposes.

Aircraft deliveries are expected to start in 2018 with three units to be assembled in Italy and seventeen at the HeliVert joint venture’s plant headquartered in Tomilino, Moscow region. These helicopters will add to the previous order by RN-Aircraft for ten AW189s signed in July 2015. Moreover, as already set out in the framework agreement signed in December 2014 and with the involvement of Russian Helicopters, a subsidiary of Rostec corporation, Rosneft plans to order further helicopters by 2025, for a total of up to 160 units.

The parties also reached an agreement in 2015 for the progressive restructuring of HeliVert, an originally 50-50 joint venture with Russian Helicopters, which foresaw the participation of Rosneft, worth 30% of the shares. Subsequently, shares in HeliVert have been redistributed as follows: 40% to Leonardo Helicopters, 30% to Russian Helicopters, 30% to Rosneft. With Rosneft joining HeliVert, Leonardo-Finmeccanica aims at strengthening its industrial collaboration with its Russian partners and its commercial presence, by introducing a new product into the Russian market, which has already proven extremely successful globally.

(Image provided with Leonardo-Finmeccanica news release)

FMI: www.leonardocompany.com