A start-up founded by a Qingdao-born businessman two years ago is set to take over the troubled 80-year-old Hawker Beechcraft company with a US$1.79 billion bid.
Beijing-based engine manufacturer Superior Aviation Beijing has entered exclusive talks with the Kansas-based aircraft maker, allowing the parties to conduct due diligence over the next 45 days.
The two parties are expected to come up with a restructuring plan for the new company to win the support from Hawker Beechcraft's creditors. The company filed for bankruptcy protection in May and is owned by Goldman Sachs Capital Partners and Onex, a Canadian private equity firm.
Superior Aviation spokesman Qian Chunyuan said the company was 60 per cent owned by Cheng Shenzong and his wife, with the remaining 40 per cent held by a private equity fund, run by Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, a unit of the Beijing municipal government.
It's not the first time Cheng has emerged as a white knight to financially strapped US firms. He acquired bankrupt Superior Air Parts from the liquidator in 2009 and formed Superior Aviation Beijing the following year. Superior Air Parts was the world's largest aftermarket piston aircraft parts manufacturer for general aviation aircraft engines.
Since acquiring know-how from Superior Air Parts, Superior Aviation had developed two types of piston engines that had been certified by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Qian said.