Dassault Aviation’s Rafale Is Lowest Bidder in India Jet Fighter Contract

Dassault Aviation SA (AM), seeking its first export order for Rafale fighters, will begin exclusive negotiations to supply 126 jets to India after being selected as the lowest bidder.
The French company and India’s defense ministry will begin talks within 15 days, an Indian government official told reporters in New Delhi yesterday. Negotiations will probably extend beyond the March 31 end of India’s fiscal year.
Dassault surged the most in 22 years in Paris trading yesterday as it nears a deal valued at $11 billion. A lack of exports had led French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet to suggest the government could stop funding the Rafale, which has been used by the nation’s military for more than a decade.
“It’s great news for Dassault, it really firms things up for them,” said Yan Derocles, an analyst at Paris-based Oddo Securities. “It would be their first export contract, and a very significant one at that, and it would likely have a booster effect on other negotiations now under way.”
India shortlisted the Rafale and Eurofighter Typhoon in April, when it rejected bids from U.S. manufacturers Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT) and Boeing Co. (BA), as well as Saab AB (SAABB) and OAO United Aircraft Corp. The country is buying the fighters to replace an aging fleet of Russian MiG-21s and Dassault Mirage 2000s.
01/02/12 Andrea Rothman/Bloomberg

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Categories: Foreign Feb 2012, Indian Aviation- In General Feb 2012