Bombardier may be close to completing its exit from the airliner business, confirming Wednesday morning that it’s holding talks with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to sell its once-mighty CRJ regional jet line. For Mitsubishi Heavy, which has struggled to make the climb from an aircraft component supplier to a jet maker, the deal may be less about the money-losing CRJ than acquiring its extensive service network.



Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Heavy is years behind schedule on the MRJ, a twin-engine regional jet that was initially expected to be launched in 2013 with Japanese airline ANA. With certification of the 90-seat version believed to be on track for 2020, acquiring the competing CRJ program would solve the knottiest remaining problem for Mitsubishi: product support and maintenance, says Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst with Teal Group. “They have no experience at that, and no infrastructure,” he says.



The sale talks were first reported by&nbsp;<a href="https://theaircurrent.com/industry-strategy/mitsubishi-in-advanced-negotiations-to-acquire-bombardiers-crj-program/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Air Current</a>.



Montreal-based Bombardier created the regional jet market in 1989 when it launched the CRJ, which was a stretched, 50-seat version of the Challenger business jet that it had acquired a few years prior when it first got into aerospace by buying the struggling aircraft maker Canadair from the Canadian government. With jet fuel cheap in the 1990s, U.S. airlines snapped up the CRJ to replace propeller-driven planes on short-haul routes serving smaller cities. Bombardier has sold 1,950 CRJs, but sales slowed in the early 2000s as oil prices climbed and airline consolidation shrank route networks.



Bombardier had 51 outstanding orders for the aging airframe as of March 31, a backlog that should be worked through by 2020. Bombardier refreshed the CRJ in recent years with a new cabin design, but its seventies-vintage General Electric engines are inefficient by modern standards, and it’s not clear if the plane could be retrofitted with newer ones.



What’s kept sales trickling along has been the persistence of so-called “scope clauses” in U.S. airlines’ labor contracts with their pilots, which restrict the major carriers from contracting with regional airlines for flights of planes above 76 seats and a maximum takeoff weight of 86,000 pounds. With the MRJ, Mitsubishi made a losing bet that the scope clauses would be relaxed by the time it came into service: the MRJ90 is too big to be used in the U.S. now. Embraer made the same miscalculation with its new E2 regional jet line.



Mitsubishi has been working on a 70-seat version, but that project is&nbsp;<a href="https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Mitsubishi-to-turn-MRJ-into-cheaper-smaller-Space-Jet" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly</a>&nbsp;going through a redesign that could delay it until 2023.



United and Delta pilots are negotiating new contracts, and American and Southwest’s agreements are up in 2020, but it’s unclear whether the airlines will be able to win relaxation of the scope clause restrictions. &nbsp;&nbsp;



It’s also unclear whether Mitsubishi would want to keep producing the CRJ, scope clauses or no, given its unprofitability. The company could choose to fulfill current orders and wind it down, says Aboulafia.



Beyond the CRJ maintenance network, Mitsubishi could benefit from adding experienced engineers from the Bombardier program who could aid in developing the MRJ and in the complicated regulatory certification process.



Bombardier filed a lawsuit against Mitsubishi in October, alleging that former Bombardier employees had supplied it with trade secrets that would help the MRJ gain certification.



A sale of the CRJ line would be the sunset of an era of ambition for Bombardier, a snowmobile maker that expanded into rail in the 1970s and aviation in the 1980s with a series of acquisitions, but stumbled badly earlier this decade with an attempt to challenge Airbus and Boeing by developing a 100- to 130-seat jet, the CSeries,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2018/11/06/bombardier-fights-to-regain-altitude/#132f91490d5d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">that almost bankrupted the company</a>.



CEO Alain Bellemare, who came aboard in 2015, has sold off assets and raised new debt and equity to pare Bombardier’s heavy debt load,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2018/11/06/bombardier-fights-to-regain-altitude/#132f91490d5d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">aiming to slim the company down to its strongholds</a>&nbsp;in business jets and trains. &nbsp;



In 2018, Bombardier gave away a majority share in the CSeries to Airbus, which has rebranded it the A220. Airbus has the option to buy full control in 2025. This week Bombardier closed the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremybogaisky/2018/11/08/bombardier-selling-q400-turboprop-line-cutting-5000-jobs-as-it-moves-to-strengthen-balance-sheet/#350bb68e1736" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sale of its Q Series regional turboprop line</a>&nbsp;to Longview Capital, and last month it announced that it would sell an aerostructures factory in Morocco and its Northern Ireland unit, which developed innovative composite resin technology used to make the wings for the A220.



For the CRJ program, Bombardier could fetch a similar price to its sale of the Q Series, which netted $250 million, says analyst Christopher Murray of AltaCorp Capital, and a deal could allow it to offload other contingent liabilities.



Bombardier shares rose 8.9% Wednesday morning to 2.14 Canadian dollars on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The stock tumbled 20% in late April after the company cut its 2019 sales and profit outlook due to delays and quality issues on multiple contracts at its rail unit. Bombardier said during its first-quarter earnings call last month that it would no longer commit to previously announced financial goals for 2020, including raising sales to $20 billion.



-Jeremy Bogaisky;Forbes Staff

960×0 (2)

Why Mitsubishi Heavy May Want Bombardier’s Money-Losing CRJ Regional Jet Line

Volkswagen Group has held on to its position as the world’s top-selling automaker for the fifth year in a row, although the German group was edged out again by the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance in the light-duty vehicles segment.



Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Mitsubishi Motors Corp together sold 10.76 million passenger cars and light commercial vehicles in 2018, according to Reuters’ calculations after new data released on Wednesday. The group doesn’t sell heavy trucks.



Nissan said on Wednesday it sold 5.65 million vehicles last year, down 2.8 percent on the year. Mitsubishi reported an 18 percent rise in sales to 1.22 million units while Renault sold 3.88 million units, up 3.2 percent on the year.



Volkswagen’s deliveries rose 0.9 percent to a record 10.83 million last year, including its MAN and Scania heavy trucks, the German company said earlier this month. Excluding heavy trucks, it sold 10.6 million units.



Toyota Motor Corp retained its third spot, announcing on Wednesday that it had sold 10.59 million vehicles last year including its Toyota and Lexus brands, along with minicars made by subsidiary Daihatsu and light and heavy trucks produced by its truck division Hino Motors Ltd.



Excluding Hino trucks, Toyota sold 10.39 million units last year. The automaker has said it expects to sell a total of 10.76 million vehicles in 2019.



Many automakers are trying to boost sales volumes to achieve economies of scale and reduce costs amid soaring investments needed to develop next-generation technologies, including self-driving cars and electric vehicles.



This has been a focus of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Motors group, which is looking to share more vehicle parts and consolidate production platforms to trim R&amp;D and manufacturing costs, while raising profitability.



The alliance, which brought Mitsubishi Motors into its fold in 2016, is currently in crisis with its former Chairman Carlos Ghosn arrested and indicted on charges of misconduct. Nissan has also been indicted, and Renault appointed new top management last week. -Reuters



&#8211;Naomi Tajitsu

gettyimages-451680930-594×594

Renault-Nissan Group Sold Most Cars Last Year, but VW’s No.1 Including Trucks

Crossing Pont Félix Houphouët-Boigny in Abidjan, you get to see Côte d’Ivoire’s dichotomy clearly. In front of you, mid-rise buildings glow with neon lights through the darkness: Pepsi, Mitsubishi, MTN create a mask that hints at prosperity. But the queues of young men waiting on street corners and the cranes pecking at the drifts of garbage on the water’s edge tell a different story.
Once the region’s most sophisticated economy, Côte d’Ivoire is now a case study for the economic impact of conflict and political paralysis. But even though its election descended into violence and the country teetered on the brink of another civil war, the much-delayed completion of the transition from post-war junta to democratic state has put Côte d’Ivoire back on the path to regaining some of its former glory.
A shaky cease-fire, signed in 2003 to hold the country together after an attempted coup, led to a government that controlled the south—under Laurent Gbagbo—and a north run by Forces Nouvelles rebels.
During that limbo, investors talked about the country’s potential and the build up of money that was waiting to be released once the election finally passed. But it was delayed, then delayed again, until it seemed as though the delay would be interminable. While regional neighbors, such as Ghana, saw their economies boom and attract international investment, Côte d’Ivoire was in stasis.
In November 2010, there was one last twist. The incumbent old warhorse Gbagbo refused to yield, leading to a violent standoff. The victor, Alassane Ouattara, formed a government within the compound of the Golf Hotel in Abidjan, protected by a ring of UN peacekeepers while militias fought in the city around them.
Escalating international pressure and financial sanctions eventually led to the collapse of Gbagbo’s support. Ouattara, a former International Monetary Fund official, took over in April last year but not before the country had defaulted on its bonds by failing to make coupon payments to international creditors London Club, while its assets were frozen.
His early achievements—in reassuring investors that the arrears would be repaid and getting backing for debt relief from France—were encouraging, and today in Abidjan there is a cautious optimism. The city is not visibly transformed from two years ago, but construction projects are restarting and traffic is building. Though the change has not been dramatic, the lifting of the deadlock means that companies can finally plan beyond the short term.
“There’s a sense that a lot of things are possible,” says the director of the private equity firm Emerging Capital Partners’ (ECP) Abidjan office, Brice Lodugnon. The security situation has improved and there’s some certainty over the direction of the government, which has pledged to increase spending on infrastructure and agriculture.
The good news is that at least around Abidjan, infrastructure and utilities still function. There are good companies in many sectors and a relatively strong system of governance. Key industries, including financial services, are competitive and the country is still the world’s largest exporter of cocoa. But while Côte d’Ivoire has some of the political risk of a post-conflict environment, it does not have an abundance of underpriced opportunities. That’s a problem for investors.
Even before the crisis, there were tentative expansions into previously politicized industries, including cement making and flour milling, with companies from North Africa, as well as the country’s large French and Lebanese expat communities, moving into manufacturing and processing. Agribusiness group Olam has pledged a further $200 million in investments, while ECP is expanding its portfolio in the power sector. Rather than looking for a new cohort of investors, Ouattara’s government might find more support from those existing players, now free to make long-term plans.
Many businesses were battered by the 2011 crisis but now stoically downplay the human cost of that period, talking instead of the relief at their newfound ability to plan beyond the short term. Still, the scars are there. At the height of the violence, pro-Gbagbo forces executed one of the country’s largest foreign investors—Yves Lambelin, the former president and patriarch of Sifca. That story gets told regularly.
International investors speak highly of Ouattara. One CEO of a multinational operating across the continent said that the president—while his ability to create a government is unproven—is one of the most accomplished leaders in economic planning in Africa.
Politics are bound to be difficult. An hour’s flight north of Abidjan is Ouattara’s hometown of Bouaké, until recently the headquarters of the Forces Nouvelles. There, the difference in development is marked. The roads are in worse condition and the security presence, in the form of UN peacekeepers from Pakistan, are far more visible. People living there refer to the country’s “reconstruction”.
Further up country the situation is worse, with an entire generation denied access to education after the southern government abandoned schools. An executive in a cotton company, with an extensive presence in the north, called the state of some areas “appalling”.
Making sure that the country’s redevelopment is even and that the government—headed by a northerner—does not re-open divisions that are still fresh, will be a massive task for the new president.

Tag: Mitsubishi

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Why Mitsubishi Heavy May Want Bombardier’s Money-Losing CRJ Regional Jet Line

Renault-Nissan Group Sold Most Cars Last Year, but VW’s No.1 Including Trucks

Healing The Divide Will Be No Easy Task