In an interview with the Financial Times, Rudiger Grube, EADS chairman,

seems to rejoice that much less is being written about the company, what the paper calls an“under-stated jubilation” after the battle between France and Germany to reorganizethe management. “It was not possible with this two-headed structure to come to a realsolution about paying a dividend”, Mr. Grube says. He insists that “today, it’s clear we’re inone boat” and that EADS definitely works as a normal company today, “free of the nationalcamps and flags”. Speaking about political issues reportedly interfering in Airbus’ plant saleto US group Spirit, he rather emphasizes that Spirit’s conditions “didn’t fit with our target”. Healso reassures that the sale of factories to Latecoere, GKN and MT Aerospace “is still ontrack” despite financial issues. Besides, Rudiger Grube asserts that core shareholders haveno plans to change their stakes in the foreseeable future, and reveals that nationally-basedresponsibility swap within 5 years at the top of EADS (with, for instance, Thomas Enderstaking over from Louis Gallois) does not necessarily mean that “the successors should be thesame guys or different guys”.
Financial Times (24/03)