Taiwanese Government Selling Half Ownership In Bizjet Maker

News reports coming out of Taiwan say lawmakers in that country wants out of the planemaking business... and have put the Taiwanese government's 50-percent stake in Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp up for sale.

The Taipei Times reports Taiwanese officials are negotiating with a possible US buyer. The Martinsburg (WV) Journal added Taiwanese Vice Economics Minister Shih Yen-hsiang recently discussed the potential sale in an interview.

"We expect the deal to be struck between the end of January and mid-February," Shih said in the interview with Broadcasting Corp. of China.

Officials at Sino's headquarters in San Antonio, TX aren't commenting on the reports. The company also has a plant in Martinsburg.

Although its first aircraft, the SJ30-2 business jet, was FAA certified in July 2005 and first customer deliveries began late last year, Taiwan's Sino Investment Corp. -- a government-owned entity -- has grown increasingly uneasy in its seven-year-old partnership with Swearingen Aircraft.

As Aero-News reported in July 2006, one Taiwanese lawmaker stated the US company should be shut down, if it couldn't secure additional private funding. Further discontentment surfaced in August, when the company cut 150 jobs at its two plants.

The Taiwanese government is majority shareholder in the planemaker, and has invested close to $600 million in the company, according to the Journal.

FMI: www.sj30jet.com