29 Apr 16. Lockheed Martin and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Sign Teaming Agreement to Build Multi-mission Combat Ships.
Lockheed Martin (LMT) and Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) have signed a comprehensive teaming agreement to partner on the Multi-mission Combat Ship (MCS), which is based on a DSME hull design and intended for the corvette market.
Both companies bring valuable experience and unique capabilities to the teaming arrangement. Lockheed Martin has a proven track record of developing and integrating complex systems into a wide variety of U.S. and international naval vessels. DSME is one of the world’s largest shipbuilders and has a rich history of producing highly capable naval vessels for the Republic of Korea and other international customers.
“DSME’s MCS hull design coupled with Lockheed Martin’s expertise in program and systems integration will allow the team to bring this capable ship to the international marketplace at an affordable price,” said Joe North, vice president of Littoral Ships and Systems at Lockheed Martin Mission System and Training. “Together, we bring not only the best experience, expertise and resources, but also the right dedication and focus to offer coalition navies a multi-mission corvette-sized ship designed to meet future threats.”
“This Teaming Agreement on MCS and strategic cooperation will not only provide our customers with high capability vessels on time, but also further facilitate our two companies’ joint efforts in exploring opportunities on a global scale,” said Deog-Soo Kim, vice president and the head of the Naval & Special Ship Business Management Division at DSME. “Moreover, the Korean government is pursuing ‘New-Economic Growth Activation by Defense Industry’ as one of the state development agendas and this agreement is a good example of achieving the objective.”
Lockheed Martin and DSME are continuing to explore additional business opportunities in the international naval market where integrated, multi-mission corvettes will play a vital role in coastal protection as well as regional operations. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)
29 Apr 16. Bombardier family has no plans to relinquish majority control -chairman. Bombardier Inc’s dual-class share structure is vital to protect the long-term interests of the Quebec-based aerospace and transportation company, and the Bombardier-Beaudoin family has no plans to relinquish its majority control, Executive Chairman Pierre Beaudoin said on Friday.
“For the family, the success of this company has always been important. The family was there in good and bad times,” Beaudoin said in response to a question at Bombardier’s annual meeting. “The multiple voting right shares enable us to invest in the long term and allow us to protect the company against its dismantling, and we do not want to change anything.”
The share structure has long faced criticism, especially given the company’s missteps around its long-delayed and over-budget CSeries passenger planes that won a reprieve with a big order from Delta Air Lines on Thursday.
Several major investors, including the Quebec pension fund, have pressed the Bombardier-Beaudoin family to reduce its voting control of the company, according to sources.
The family has resisted ceding control of Bombardier, founded in 1942 by snowmobile inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier. It moved into train and plane building via acquisitions made by his son-in-law, Laurent Beaudoin.
The company’s founding family has a 53.23 percent voting stake, largely via the 79.5 percent stake of Bombardier’s Class A multiple voting shares the family controls. Those shares carry 10 votes per share, while Class B shares carry 1 vote per share.
Bombardier has conceded that the dual-class structure is a factor in negotiations for a $1 billion cash infusion from the Canadian government.
Beaudoin on Friday declined to comment on the funding talks, saying only that he urged Canada to match Quebec’s pl