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Bombardier And Onex

Bombardier may be partnering up with the Canadian buyout firm Onex if it decides to go ahead with plans to build a new 110-130 passenger jet. This theory is being batted around by research capitalist Jacques Kavafian, who made known his opinion shortly before Bombardier announced it had received an order from Delta Airlines for 14 more of the company’s CRJ900 jets. The
contract for this order is estimated at $511 million.

The new proposed airliner would demand a hefty price tag for building and development. Predictions put the budget at $2 billion. This projects could serve as a springboard for Bombardier, catapulting them from the business of regional jets into a long range market currently dominated by Boeing and Airbus.

Onex is the most likely candidate for financing because of their financial muscle. They flexed this muscle when they recently publicized a $1.1 billion secondary offering of shares in its Spirit Aerosystems Holdings division.

According to Kavafian, Bombardier has already sold 130 aircraft this year, up from 114 for all of 2006 and 94 in 2005.