► AERO Vodochody begins to write a new chapter with new owners
The signing of the contract on June 11, 2020 confirms the transfer of 100% of the shares of the holding owning Czech company AERO Vodochody to AERO Investment Partners Zrt. The majority of 51% of the shares of AERO Investment Partners Zrt. is owned by Hungarian businessman András Tombor with the remaining 49% of the shares being owned by the Czech company AERO International s.r.o.
The minority owner, AERO International s.r.o., is in the hands of Richard Háva and his family, which owns the OMNIPOL Group. The OMNIPOL Group will be responsible for the day to day management of the new company and will therefore be a guarantor of having experienced and professional managers running the business.
The company Airport Vodochody a.s., is not part of this transaction and will remain in the possession of the current owner Penta Investments. AERO’s right to use the airport for its development stems from a contractual obligation agreed between the parties.
“AERO is one of the strongest Czech brands and a concept that rightly inspires national pride in many people. AERO not only has a great past, but above all also huge potential for the future. We want to build on the tradition of the company and restore its reputation on the Czech and world market. We will develop all three pillars of AERO’s existing activities, namely, support for users of aircraft produced by the company, cooperation with the world’s major aerospace manufacturers and, of course, the L-39NG project,” says Richard Háva.
The OMNIPOL Group has a very long history with AERO, over the past decades it has been responsible for exporting almost all of the aircraft from its production lines. Since 2015, OMNIPOL has also been the strategic partner in the project for the next generation of L-39 aircraft: L-39NG. As a 50% shareholder of these projects, the group has already worked very closely with AERO over the past five years.
The new majority owner of the company, András Tombor is an experienced, regionally renowned businessman, who has a proven track record of many successful investments in various fields of the economy. The entry by such an investor into AERO will make a major contribution to the owners’ efforts to stabilize the company and secure its future developments.
“In our portfolio AERO was not one of the companies that we wanted to develop in the long term,” said Marek Dospiva, co-owner of Penta Investments. Penta acquired AERO in a privatization tender in 2006, turning a company with a billion-dollar loss into a thriving company in less than two years. By fundamentally changing the strategy in 2016, it decided on AERO’s return to the production of its own aircraft and to focus primarily on military programs.
