Thu, Jun 05, 2008
Emivest To Acquire 80 Percent Stake In Fledgling
Planemaker
It appears another struggling planemaker will live to fly
another day, due to a massive investment from abroad. Buti Saeed
Alghandi, Chairman of Emirates Investment & Development PSC
(Emivest) of Dubai, announced Wednesday his company obtained
approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United
States (CFIUS) to acquire an 80 percent stake in Sino Swearingen
Aircraft Corporation (SSAC) of San Antonio, TX.
The acquisition will enable SSAC to initiate full-scale
production of its SJ30, which is billed by the company as the
world’s fastest, longest range and highest flying light jet.
The SJ30 has a high-speed cruise of Mach .83, a range of 2,500
nautical miles and an operating ceiling of 49,000 feet.
Announcement of the acquisition is the latest chapter in the
admittedly troubled history of the company, which was incorporated
in 1997 as a partnership between US planemaker Swearingen Aircraft
Company and the government of Taiwan. As ANN reported, the
planemaker announced a second round of layoffs in July 2007, one
month after the Taiwanese government -- the majority shareholder in
the planemaker -- failed in its last two attempts to secure new
investors for the Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation.
Headquartered at the San Antonio International Airport (KSAT),
the SSAC currently employs over 550 staff at its facilities in San
Antonio, TX and Martinsburg, WV. The company delivered its second
customer aircraft during the NBAA Convention in Atlanta, GA last
September.
Emivest was founded in 1997, and is best-known as the master
developer of the Dubai-Lyon city project. Its acquisition of SSAC
marks its first foray into aviation, as well as its first
investment in a US-based company.
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