UPDATE 1-Brazil Embraer puts 2007 investment at $500 mln http://today.reuters.com/news/articlebusiness.aspx?type=AIRLIN&storyid=2006-12-14T181550Z_01_N14321518_RTRIDST_0_BRAZIL-EMBRAER-UPDATE-1.XML&from=business
Thu Dec 14, 2006
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SAO PAULO, Brazil, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Brazil's Embraer, the world's fourth-biggest manufacturer of commercial aircraft, expects to invest $500 million next year, its chief executive officer, Mauricio Botelho, said on Thursday.
Botelho told a press luncheon Embraer had invested $2.6 billion since its privatization in 1994 and expected the company to invest a similar amount of money in the next five years.
He did not say where the money would come from and whether Embraer, short for Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica, would borrow funds in the market.
Botelho also said the company would hire between 3,000 and 4,000 people next year. Embraer (EMBR3.SA: Quote, Profile , Research)(ERJ.N: Quote, Profile , Research) has a work force of some 19,000, most of them in Brazil. "It's more toward 4,000," Botelho said.
Embraer said last month it expects to deliver up to 165 planes in 2007, up slightly from a previous forecast of 160. The company also predicted it would deliver between 195 and 205 jets in 2008, including up to 20 of the new Phenom 100s, a small, luxurious business jet Embraer is developing. Embraer finished the third quarter with a firm order backlog of $13.3 billion.
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