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Russian firm signs major deal with AgustaWestland

Jan. 2, 2015 – Rosneft, Rostec Corporation and Italian group Finmeccanica signed trilateral agreement for strategic partnership. The document was signed by the head of Rosneft Igor Sechin, Rostec Corporation CEO Sergey Chemezov and the head of Finmecanica group, Mauro Moretti, on Dec. 29.

As part of the signed document the parties will establish a joint venture of the Russian Helicopters holding and AgustaWestland (subsidiaries of Rostec and Finmeccanica). The JV will be based on the HeliVert plant situated in the Moscow Region. Rosneft will become a new partner of the Russian-Italian JV. It is planned to launch production of the medium helicopters AW189.

Rosneft will form a bid and become the first customer for the AW189 helicopters. By 2025, HeliVert is envisaged to sell and deliver up to 160 helicopters to Rosneft. In compliance with the reached agreements the assembly, supplies, aftersales service and training of AW189 helicopters will be carried out. As part of the project, localization of the AW189 production is planned to be implemented in stages up to 2025.

Commenting on the signing Rosneft Head Igor Sechin said: ”Offshore projects development is a strategic priority for Rosneft. It is impossible to accomplish this mission without state-of-the-art arctic and marine equipment, oil and gas rigs, modern aeronautical engineering. We are glad to reach these agreements, thanks to which strategic cooperation in such an important area is being created.”

In his turn Sergey Chemezov noted that: “The production of AW189 in Russia will create large opportunities for the continuation of our successful cooperation with our Italian partners — Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland. The project will be implemented on the basis of an exclusive license agreement, which gives HeliVert the right to produce such helicopters, their distribution in Russia and the CIS. The participation of the leader of the Russian oil industry, Rosneft, in our project can give a new boost to the development of the joint venture and production expansion.”