(An AgustaWestland Company)

Formed in 1977; the Agusta group completely reorganised from 1 January 1981 under new holding company Agusta; became part of Italian public holding company EFIM, employing nearly 10,000 people in 12 factories in various parts of Italy. Agusta workforce in Italy and abroad was 4,872 in 2001.
As part of recovery of liquidated state-owned EFIM, Agusta group integrated into Finmeccanica on 20 December 1996.
On 16 April 1998, Finmeccanica and the United Kingdom's GKN, owners of Agusta and Westland, respectively, announced signature of an MoU which was intended to lead to an 'alliance of equals' of their helicopter divisions. This was effected on 26 July 2000, as described under AgustaWestland in the International section. The pooling of design, manufacturing and marketing activities will not require refinancing nor affect previous programme-based agreements with other partners.
In November 1998 Agusta and Bell Helicopter Textron signed an agreement to form Bell/Agusta Aerospace Company, to share development, manufacture and marketing of the Bell/Agusta BA609 civil tiltrotor and AB139 utility helicopter. AgustaWestland also involved in Eurotilt programme.
On 14 January 2002, Agusta and Denel Group of South Africa signed an agreement for licensed production of the A109 and A119 in South Africa. Under the terms of the agreement Denel will manufacture the helicopters at its Kempton Park facility for marketing in Africa, the Middle East, South America and Southeast Asia. Denel will manufacture 25 of the 30 A109s ordered by the South African Air Force; negotiations were under way in early 2002 for Denel to manufacture the airframes of A109Ms ordered by the Swedish armed forces.
By mid-2001, Agusta had built more than 3,779 helicopters under licence from Bell, Boeing, MD helicopters and Sikorsky.