SIDBI ties up with Airbus to fund helicopter purchases

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has tied up with Airbus Helicopters, the chopper manufacturing wing of Airbus, to fund the purchase of helicopters in India. 

Airbus will provide technical and helicopter industry knowledge to SIDBI, which will analyze the prospects and fund the purchase of Airbus choppers, according to the memorandum of understanding (MoU).

“Under the MoU, both Airbus Helicopters and SIDBI will identify potential civil helicopter operators in India who are interested in financing solutions for purchasing Airbus helicopters,” Airbus said in a statement.

“The MoU with SIDBI opens a new chapter in making civil helicopters more accessible to operators in India, which will further position these rotary wing aircraft as a critical tool for nation building,” said Sunny Guglani, head of Airbus Helicopters, India and South Asia.

“Combining our unmatched product portfolio and industry expertise with SIDBI’s attractive financing solutions will play a pivotal role in the expansion of the civil helicopter market in India.” 

This initiative marks a significant foray of SIDBI into helicopter financing and meeting the financial and development needs of India’s fast-growing rotary wing sector.

“This is a new area for financing to helicopter operators by SIDBI and is expected to open new avenues for financing MSMEs related to this segment,” Rahul Priyadarshi, chief general manager at SIDBI, said.

In India, most of the helicopters in use, including single-engine Agusta A119, Bell 206 L4, and Eurocopter AS350B3, and twin-engine Agusta A109, Bell 412EP, Dauphin AS365 N3, and Sikorsky S76 are manufactured outside the country.

State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) is the only local company for manufacturing helicopters, which largely caters to the defense sector.

Currently, there are around 250 helicopters in India, of which 72% belong to non-scheduled operators (NSOPs) while the rest belong to public sector undertakings (PSUs), government and private parties. 

In the NSOP category, the distribution ratio of single and twin-engine helicopters is around 35:65.