A new company may be established on the basis of two Russian-Italian joint ventures – Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company (SCAC) and SuperJet International, which are responsible for production and promotion of Sukhoi SuperJet 100 (SSJ 100) aircraft, Prime reports with reference to two sources close to negotiations between Russia and Italia.

The meetings with the participation of representatives of United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) and Alenia are scheduled for this week.

At present SuperJet International (51% owned by Alenia, and the rest 49% - by Sukhoi Holding Company, subsidiary of UAC) is responsible for customization and sales of SSJ 100 jets in Europe, America, Africa, Oceania and Japan. SCAC (75% owned by Sukhoi Holding Company, the rest 25% - by Alenia) is responsible for production of the jet and its sales in other countries.

The question of merging two JVs has been raised after the decision to support the project by means of secondary offering in favor of VEB taken by the Russian government. VEB will sell 5% of Airbus’ shares with a total value of €0,7 billion. Italian party should have agreed with the dilution of the stock of shares or provide funding, the source said. Since none of the abovementioned variants was acceptable for the company the Italian party suggested the exchange of shares: Italia will withdraw from SCAC and Russia - from SuperJet International.

"The exchange of shares is only one of possible variants. It has already been discussed", - a federal official told Prime. "The parties are leaning towards merge of the companies. This method will help the Italian party to keep its block of shares and the program management will be optimized", - another source close to UAC explained.

"We need to adapt the SSJ 100 program<…> Ideal model is the joint venture with ATR", - Ugo Vinti, COO Business of Alenia Aermacchi S.p.A., told Aeropolis.it. ATR (Aerei da Trasporto Regionale) founded by EADS and Alenia, is responsible for the whole program of regional aircraft. A representative of UAC told Prime that it is too early to comment any other variants of cooperation between Russian and Italian parties.