India cancelled its $770 million helicopter deal with Italian defence group Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland unit on Wednesday over what it termed a breach of integrity, but agreed to take part in an arbitration process.India froze payments for the 12 AW101 helicopters after Finmeccanica's then chief executive was arrested in February for allegedly paying bribes to secure the deal, embarrassing the New Delhi government before parliamentary elections due by May 2014.The scrapping of the deal, which will now go through a probably lengthy legal process, would be a fresh setback for Finmeccanica. Delays in selling some of its money-losing assets have prompted credit rating agencies to downgrade the company to junk.But it would offer an opportunity for rivals such as United Technologies Corp's Sikorsky Aircraft, EADS unit Eurocopter and Lockheed Martin to get a share of India's burgeoning defence market.
Lockheed Martin Corporation is a global security and aerospace company principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration, and sustainment of technology systems and products. Shares of LMT traded higher by 0.64% or $0.93/share to $147.00. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $85.88 and as high as $149.99. On average, 1645990 shares of LMT exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 396900.
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