Sikorsky à vendre à Paris
A Sikorsky S-92 helicopter in flight.
Airlines orders and new aircraft launches get the biggest headlines at airshows, but as much business gets done between suppliers selling to each other. This year, United Technologies used the Paris Airshow to try and sell Sikorsky. For $4 billion.
Textron, Airbus and others are all rumoured to be interested (although so far the process has been commendably leak free). United Technologies says it will decide on a buyer by September.
Several defence companies have been named. If one of these are successful it could be interesting to see how much support is given to commercial helicopter programmes.
The Paris Airshow analyst presentation was pretty downbeat. Sikorsky is forecasting a 20% fall in commercial sales this year (at the start of this year it was expecting a 3% rise). It expects to lose $150 million this year compared to a previous forecast of $25 million. And this is after job cuts.
Gregory Haynes, CEO, of United Technology – and the former CFO – clearly has a vision for the company. But you do wonder if they sale could have been delayed by a year.
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