EKB News

WEST VIRGINIA....
San Antonio-based Emivest Aerospace Corp., a company that manufactures corporate jets at facilities in West Virginia and Texas, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The filing made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware estimates the number of creditors between 200 and 999 and lists both estimated assets and liabilities at between $50 million and $100 million. Emivest, a subsidiary of Dubai-based Emirates Investment and Development, acquired an 80 percent interest in Sino Swearingen Aircraft in 2008. The SJ30 corporate jet was assembled at facilities in Martinsburg and San Antonio. When Sino Swearingen won regulatory approval to build the jet in late 2005, it had 140 workers at the West Virginia plant, but, when the facility's former president took another job about a month ago, one employee remained in Martinsburg. U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller says he hopes Emivest is able to restructure in a way that keeps the company in the Mountain State.