Eurocopter Romania starts out with $300-400 million

French-German consortium Eurocopter at the end of last week announced it had concluded the procedures to establish Eurocopter Romania, a joint venture formed with Brasov-based IAR.

The joint venture will have $300-400 million in launch capital, the American military information magazine Jane’s Defence Weekly reports.

The new company will officially become operational on September 1. Eurocopter, branch of the European Aeronautics and Defence Company (EADS), the third leading aircraft maker in the world, will hold 51%, while IAR Brasov will have 49%.

The first contract of Eurocopter Romania could be the sale of ten new AS-330 Puma transport choppers to the United Arab Emirates and upgrading another 15 Pumas already owned by the Emirates.

The proposal recently made by Eurocopter was grounded on an initiative of IAR Brasov, the only maker of Puma AS-330 helicopter, the defence magazine says.

The authorisation of the new Puma version, the upgrading and delivery of the aircraft will be done over the next four years.

Eurocopter, a company that has shown interest in IAR ever since early in the nineties, was the only one to have posted a bid with the former State Ownership Fund last year in order to buy the controlling interests in the Brasov-based company.

IAR’s privatisation was resumed in 1999, after two years during which a bid by Bell Helicopter had been postponed for several times.

The Romanian authorities were unable to carry through this transaction because of lack of funds needed to purchase the helicopters the American company was supposed to produce at Ghimbav.

Following the feasibility studies required to participate in the privatisation, Eurocopter “found a series of risks related to their involvement in the privatisation of the company and has come up with the idea of a joint venture,” that is Eurocopter Romania.