Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Competitor Lockheed Martin is the lead candidate to buy Sikorsky helicopter in a deal valued at more than $8 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Connecticut-based Sikorsky, a unit of United Technologies Corp., builds and tests helicopters in Palm Beach County, Fla., where it has 1,200 employees. Sikorsky shares a campus in northwestern Palm Beach County with Pratt &Whitney, which develops jet engines.
Palm Beach County Business Development Board president Kelly Smallridge has said she isn’t worried about Sikorsky leaving the county because of the company’s investment in land and operations. In 2012, Sikorsky built a 35,000-square-foot helicopter hangar in northwestern Palm Beach County at a cost of about $12.5 million.
UTC, based in Harford, Conn., said in June that it would spin off or sell Sikorsky. As a standalone company, Sikorsky would be a Fortune 500 company with $7 billion in sales.
In making the announcement in June, UTC president and CEO Gregory Hayes said that separating UTC and Sikorsky will allow the companies “to better focus on their core businesses.”
Sikorsky is best known for its Black Hawk helicopters for the military. In 2014, Sikorsky introduced the CH-53K, crowned the “King Stallion” by the Marine Corps at an event at Sikorsky in Palm Beach County. The helicopter is designed to carry 27,000 pounds – three times the load of the previous Sikorsky helicopter – enabling it to move troops and equipment from ship to shore and to higher altitude terrain more quickly and effectively than before.
Sikorsky has received $600,000 from the Governor’s Quick Action Closing fund under a 2011 contract. In 2012, the state confirmed $2.4 billion in capital investment.
No tax refunds have been made under Sikorsky’s 2012 agreement, modified in 2014, to retain 81 jobs and create 14 new ones, according to the state. Sikorsky’s contract with Florida ends in 2018.
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