German aviation financier Conrado Dornier has taken a small equity stake in JetBird, the start-up executive jet company owned by businessman Dómhnal Slattery.
Mr Dornier has invested about $1 million (€787,854) in the company, whose initial capital is in the region of $5 million, for a single-figure stake in the company. "It's not a lot of money but we didn't need money," Mr Slattery said.
A member of a family whose involvement in the aviation industry goes back to 1910s, Mr Dornier owns the Oberpfaffenhofen private airport near Munich.
His investment will help JetBird establish a foothold in Germany, a crucial market for the company given the embedded wealth there and its proximity to JetBird's launch market of Switzerland.
JetBird, which aims to launch its service in 2009, said Mr Dornier's investment was made at a valuation that was a "significant premium" to the valuation of the company when its equity was raised for an initial order for 100 Embraer Phenom aircraft last May.
Industry sources suggested that the combination of Mr Dornier's investment with the value of JetBird's contracts with Embraer and the cash and franchise value in the business could imply a notional value on the business in the region of $55 million.
In JetBird's low-cost business model, the company aims to be a Ryanair of executive jet travel, offering timeshare access to private aircraft at a significant discount to more established rivals.
