OREANDA-NEWS. May 20, 2010. South Africa’s Pamodzi Investments plans to invest USD 1 bln over three years into the sales & servicing of Ukrainian Antonov airplanes, Bloomberg reported yesterday. Pamodzi and Antonov are currently in negotiations on opening an Antonov service center in South Africa, mirroring an agreement of Antonov’s center in Sudan. Pamodzi said South Africa currently operates 206 Antonov planes.

Concorde Capital: We see potential growth in demand for Antonov airplanes, which use Motor Sich (UX: MSICH UK) engines, in Africa. As of 2008, Antonov airplanes comprised 1/3 of Africa’s total air fleet. Among three prospective Antonov models, two of them, cargo An-70 and An-124-100, are of interest to the African market. We see demand for 50 Antonov airplanes from Africa in the next 10 years as likely, which could be converted to ~USD 750 mln in engine orders for Motor Sich.