New Ownership

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GLDAS
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New Ownership

Post by GLDAS »

Dan P. Eldridge
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krellis
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Re: New Ownership

Post by krellis »

Did not see this coming, but probably should have. Christian Dries told me the NA avgas market was dead and so for Diamond, it has been a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maybe the Chinese will pump some much needed money into product support, marketing and product upgrades/improvement. Hope the purchase wasn't simply to buy the manufacturing technology.

Can we assume the sale is the Canadian arm of Diamond only?
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Re: New Ownership

Post by HPNAviator »

I wonder if this means the D-Jet may get resurrected?
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Colin
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Re: New Ownership

Post by Colin »

The D-Jet needs $120m to begin to move again, due to the debts to a couple government agencies. That seems unlikely, although if one arm of the Chinese GA monolith wanted to compete with the other arm I guess it would be good to have the Vision Jet from (Chinese) Cirrus AND the D-Jet from (Chinese) Diamond.
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Colin
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Re: New Ownership

Post by Colin »

Some of the business up at the factory is for Northrup Grumman and I wonder how that will be affected now that they are owned by the Chinese.
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Re: New Ownership

Post by CFIDave »

It's been reported by Av-Web that the Chinese now own 60% of Diamond Canada, and that ownership of the parent company in Wiener Neustadt, Austria remains unchanged (the Dries family).

I view this as good news, as it should allow further investment and expansion of Diamond's North American operations, possibly to include restart of the D-Jet program and updates to the Lycoming DA40-180 (I'm only speculating here; I did NOT hear this from Diamond.) Diamond carefully stored jigs, parts, and testing gear for the D-Jet, with an expectation that they might eventually find an outside investor to help complete the program -- maybe this is it.

London has been working on other programs besides building avgas DA20/DA40s; these include Northrup Grumman UAVs, and creation of composite parts for new Dornier turboprop seaplanes. London also continues to be the supplier of aircraft wiring harnesses and instrument panels for most of Diamond's new aircraft including those built in Austria, and they have a maintenance organization that can tackle major upgrades to existing Diamond aircraft, including new engines, autopilots, etc.
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Re: New Ownership

Post by krellis »

Although I too am hopeful that this will lead to increased investment in product support, marketing and product improvement - it worries me that the Chinese are taking over yet another of the larger GA players. I find it sad that with the largest overall GA market in the world, it appears to be difficult to sustain GA manufacturing in North America without Chinese investment.

Further, I cannot fathom the U.S. Government allowing a Chinese entity to be involved in manufacturing Global Hawk components, or whatever Diamond happens to be producing for Northrop Grumman.
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Re: New Ownership

Post by GLDAS »

More color from the Press:
http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2016/12/ ... eports-say

This report answers some head-scratchers for me - especially the tax loss carry forwards. Diamond has generated losses in the past that will be very beneficial to a wealthy Canadian taxpayer who wants to be in aviation. I'm sure both of those individuals were solicited aggressively over the last few years :D

So the buyer is a player in GA and a manufacturer with a Canadian operation. Checks the tax loss carry forward box.

On balance, this investment is, IMHO, a huge plus for DAI-C and for Diamond owners. North American production of DA62 and DA40 aircraft must be more economical than importation, and surely local production removes the exchange rate volatility that makes life difficult for manufacturer and dealer alike.

I am curious what will be manufactured in Austria in addition to the DA42. Having just sold my HK36 motorglider... maybe I'll have to buy some of the new production if they restart that line?
-dan
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Re: New Ownership

Post by Colin »

All research and design of those aircraft will also be moved.
That's the biggest piece of news in there for me. The factory had complained that there were times they wanted to get something done, but they needed to wait for Austria to engineer it, slot it into the design and approve it. Now they will have control over that portion of the process.

(I am not sure what to make of the idea of trading the German engineers for a team of Ontario engineers instead. That makes me a little nervous.)
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Re: New Ownership

Post by Antoine »

Now that said engineers have read your comment are you sure about this major upgrade project you want to have done in London? :D
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