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Subject: Algeria to buys more MiG-29s
Big Bad Pariah    3/24/2004 7:25:52 AM
MiG 'Near' to $1.5Bln Algeria Deal By Lyuba Pronina Staff Writer The Moscow Times The MiG Corp. could soon enter the major leagues of the domestic defense industry if it seals an estimated $1.5 billion deal for 50 MiG fighter jets with Algeria. The company is nearing a contract for 50 MiG-29 fighter jets with Algeria, a source in the aerospace industry said Friday. MiG's general director, Valery Toryanin, visited Algeria earlier this month and the contract is expected to be signed within weeks, the source said. MiG refused to comment. However, MiG's former general director, Nikolai Nikitin, told reporters last fall that a deal with Algeria was imminent. He did not elaborate. Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, estimated that a deal with Algiers could earn state-owned MiG some $1.5 billion. That amount would be more than twice the $700 million contract for the delivery of 16 MiG-29s under the $1.5 billion Gorshkov aircraft carrier deal signed in January with India. "It will send MiG into the league of leaders on a par with Sukhoi and Irkut," Makiyenko said. State-owned Sukhoi and private Irkut, which sell Su-30s to China and India, led the industry last year, scooping up $2 billion in revenues with the export of 36 jets. The industry source said that the deal will most likely be paid for in cash and through the exchange of older MiG-29s Algeria acquired from Belarus. MiG last year earned $110 million, according to CAST. The company is burdened by several hundred million dollars worth of debt and has recently undergone a management change. Under Toryanin, a former senior executive at rival Sukhoi, MiG became a beneficiary of the Gorshkov contract. At present, MiG works with 29 countries and this year plans to deliver $200 million worth of jets, according to company information. Earlier this month, the company said it would integrate into its corporate structure the majority privately owned Sokol aviation plant in Nizhny Novgorod. The plant now performs upgrades on MiG-21s for India, builds Yak-130 trainer jets and modernizes MiG-31s for the Air Force. Nearly 50 percent of the plant is owned by Sergei Nedoroslev's Kaskol Group. Nedoroslev said by telephone Friday that the mechanism of integration has not been decided, but that he hopes Sokol will take part in fulfilling the Indian and upcoming contracts. Makiyenko said that Algeria may need new planes to upgrade its fleet of older MiGs and Sukhoi jets.
 
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