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.

FMI: www.sj30jet.com, www.emivest.ae/