Wed, Apr 01, 2020
Alan Klapmeier Hopes To Be Back In The Piston Single Business
Aero-News April 1 Special Edition
In an aggressive move after being approved for acquisition by Chinese company Citiking, OneAviation, the company led by Alan Klapmeier, has made a bid to acquire Klapmeier’s old company Cirrus Aviation from its Chinese parent company, AVIC.
“When we get back up to speed, we’ll be well positioned in the light jet and turboprop markets with the Eclipse 550 and the Kestrel. We need a single-engine piston product to round out the line. I happen to know of one …,” Klapmeier (pictured) said.
“And last time I checked, none of our jets had caught fire,” he added.
The deal faces mountains of regulatory hurdles and red tape, not to mention it would be a very hostile takeover, though current Cirrus management would likely have little say in what AVIC does with the company. A Chinese economist who requested anonymity for obvious reasons said that, given the current world economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19, AVIC might be very interested in divesting itself of the GA product line. “When the Chinese government bought Cirrus, the Chinese economy was rocking and rolling, and there were high hopes for the GA industry in China. Now … maybe not so much,” the economist said. “AVIC has bigger fish to fry than to worry about shoring up a little airplane company in Minnesota. This could be the absolute best time for the parties to make a deal.”
Cirrus was unavailable for comment.
Klapmeier said that the deal is far from done, but he’s hopeful that the two Chinese companies can come to some agreement by the end of the year. “Basically, this is an internal Chinese deal. I just made a suggestion that was well received,” he said. But he did say he’d had assurances from Citiking that if the deal was done, he would stay on in a leadership role. “Karma can be a cruel mistress,” he said.
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