Why Hawker Beechcraft's China Sale Was Dead on Arrival

Why Hawker Beechcraft’s China Sale Was Dead on Arrival

Stephen Pope

Thursday, October 18, 2012 at 06:54 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The planned $1.79 billion sale of Hawker Beechcraft to Superior Aviation Beijing has officially collapsed.
The deal was suspicious from its announcement, as Superior Aviation Beijing was an unknown entity with questionable financial capacity for such a large acquisition.
Signs of the deal unraveling included prolonged delays, vague responses from Hawker Beechcraft's PR, and a U.S. trade delegation being snubbed in China.
Superior Aviation Beijing's background as a smaller company primarily involved with Brantly helicopters made its offer for a major aviation brand seem highly implausible.

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I’d planned on telling you today all the reasons why I felt Hawker Beechcraft’s planned sale to Superior Aviation Beijing was very likely on the verge of unraveling. I’ll still do that, but the story took on a new dimension when a press release from Hawker Beechcraft arrived in my e-mail inbox at 8:05 this morning proclaiming the deal was dead.

I’d argue that the deal was actually dead on arrival, way back in July, when Superior Aviation Beijing stepped forward with an offer to buy the struggling Wichita company for $1.79 billion. The reasons are pretty simple: Nobody had ever heard of Superior Aviation Beijing, and nobody seriously thought this company was actually going to write a check of that gargantuan size, even if it could. A closer look at Superior’s financials reveals that it probably could not.