The sale of Airbus’s German plants to aerospace supplier OHBhas failed,

reports Financial Times Deutschland on its website. Citing industry sources,the German newspaper’s online edition claims discussions between Airbus and OHB overthe financial and industrial terms of the sale have failed. Airbus CEO Thomas Enders willnow have to make a decision over the fate of the three involved factories within two to threeweeks. An Airbus spokesperson, however, said “negotiations are going on in the threecountries”, namely France, Germany and the UK. OHB and its subsidiary MT Aerospacewere not available for comment last week. The press recalls that Louis Gallois recentlydeclared that the Airbus plant sale programme could be slowed down by the strong euro andthe global financial crisis. According to French paper Le Figaro, talks are delicate with allpotential buyers, since EADS ties up plant sales with commitments to invest in theA350XWB. Besides, the US financial crisis and the euro-dollar parity have added newdifficulties, although talks are said to enter a final stage. Latecoere and MT Aerospace wouldbe quite affected by financing issues. Airbus is already negotiating with a financial investorwhich could take a holding in all German, French and British plants that are open for sale. Incase of a failure, the plants will most likely be outsourced into a separate company placedunder the umbrella of EADS.
AFP (20/03), Reuters (20/03), Reuters, Les Echos (21/03), Le FigaroEconomie, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, (22/03), Dowjones Newswire, FinancialTimes Deutschland