Russian daily
Kommersant reported on Friday, Sept. 2, that financial consortium ,
AFK Sistema is in talks with the state-run United Industrial Enterprise Oboronoprom to sell a 50-percent stake in the
Kamov helicopter factory. Experts agree that this means that the state will soon complete the process of consolidating all domestic helicopter producers into a state-run company.
According to the paper, Kamov is one of Russia’s two leading helicopter producers. It is made up of a design bureau, an experimental enterprise and a test center. Its annual production is estimated at $80-120 million. The
MiG Aircraft Corporation manages the state-owned 49-percent stake in Kamov.
Denis Manturov, Oboronprom’s general director, said his company could acquire the Kamov helicopter producer by late September or early October. A source in Oboronprom said extra-budgetary resources would be used for the deal. Funds will most likely come from
Rosoboronexport, the state arms export monopoly and a founder of Oboronprom.
Experts said Oboronprom, with 82 percent of its stock owned by the Russian Property Fund and Rosoboronexport, would buy into Kamov soon. “Even powerful private investors from Sistema will hardly be able to shield Kamov from the almost inevitable process of large-scale restructuring and mergers in the Russian aviation industry and its helicopter sector,†said Mikhail Barabanov, the scientific editor of the magazine
Export Vooruzheniy (Arms Exports).
The Russian government started consolidating scattered domestic helicopter assets in late 2004,
Kommersant wrote. Today, Oboronprom is completing the process of uniting all the Mil helicopter design bureau developers and producers. Once the country’s two major helicopter developers are united, the state will concentrate all domestic helicopter design offices and enterprises in its hands. The holding’s annual output will reach $800-$950 million.
