"Construcţii Aeronautice Ghimbav" is free to enter any partnership with investors

Shareholders of Construcţii Aeronautice SA Ghimbav (Aeronautical Constructions Ghimbav) have empowered the management of the company to look for possible investors for a joint venture which would inherit the company"s productive assets, as well as to lease the assets used by the company in its main line of business, according to a communiqué of the company published on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange. At the same time, the management of the company was empowered to seize any opportunities offered by the Law of preventive arrangements with creditors.

Three years ago, the company"s American business partner, Liberty Aerospace, was extremely interested in a partnership ICA Ghimbav and even in acquiring the company, but AVAS (The Authority for State Assets Recovery) put off making a decision on the matter. After the beginning of the crisis, Americans gradually slowed down the cooperation, by thinning their orders to the Ghimbav factory.

Also, the company"s articles of incorporation was amended in order to make the Ministry of the Economy a majority shareholder in the company, (64.89%) replacing the Authority for State Assets Recovery (AVAS).

The shareholders of Construcţii Aeronautice SA Ghimbav decided last week to postpone the decision on whether the company should be closed down. The company"s general manager, Traian Tomescu, said that officials of the Ministry of the Economy, the majority shareholder of the company, requested that the company take other solutions into consideration. "One of them would be the implementation of the contract with the Romanian Aeronautical Club in order to provide enough work for all of the employees of ICA Ghimbav. For instance, we issued a 190,000 invoice to the Romania Aeroclub, and next week we will issue another 150,000 lei invoice, which is exactly the turnover we had scheduled for this year. We also have another 400,000 lei contract approved for Q1 2009", Mr. Tomescu said.