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BasEl Eyes Link With Dassault

A Dassault Falcon 2000LX jet in flight.

Manufacturing and transportation firm Basic Element is in talks with French company Dassault Aviation and German group Siemens about strategic partnerships with its engineering division.

Russian companies are being encouraged to cooperate with peers in more developed markets in the hope that better technology and expertise will help modernize the economy and lessen its dependence on oil and gas.

BasEl, as the company is known for short, is controlled by Oleg Deripaska.

It already has partnerships with Singapore's Changi Airport to develop Russian regional airports, while its autos group GAZ has manufacturing agreements with German firms Volkswagen and Daimler.

"We are in negotiations with Siemens on a joint project in the field of engineering, and also with Dassault [private jet division] Falcon," BasEl deputy chief executive Andrei Elinson said.

He declined to elaborate on the details of the talks.

Siemens has a number of interests in Russia, including contracts to provide trains to state-controlled Russian Railways and a joint venture to build gas turbines with Power Machines.

Dassault makes the Falcon business jets used by Russian businessmen and politicians to travel around the country.

BasEl increased its revenue 20 percent to $29 billion in 2011, Elinson said, although he would not disclose profitability figures.

"Net income also increased, both for the group as a whole and individual companies," he said.

Elinson said that close to half the proceeds had been generated by En+ Group, the BasEl division that owns the company's 47.4 percent stake in aluminum giant United Company RusAl.

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