Motor Sich Shifts Gears, Talks About Joining Russian Holding

The President of Motor Sich (MSICH: BUY), Vyacheslav Boguslaev said yesterday that he was still interested in joining the aircraft holding being created by the Russian government. Additionally, Boguslaev said that he expected the AN-124 Ruslan project with Volga-Dniper to go forward and for the first airplane to be completed in 2008. Motor Sich will produce engines for the Russian-Ukrainian joint venture. Olha Pankiv: This announcement is a complete turn around from this summer, when MSICH baulked at the idea of joining the Russian holding or of selling its shares to Russia’s Oboronprom and instead said it planned to hold an IPO in 2Q07 for a 3-5% stake in the company. It is still likely that the company will go through with the IPO and then move to build closer ties with Russia, and used this announcement to let the Russians know they were still interested.