EADS will create a new subsidiary regrouping Germany-based sites.

During a works council on Friday, the management of Airbus announced that three of the four German sites put up for sale as part of Power 8 –namely Nordenham, Varel of Airbus and Augsburg of EADS- would be regrouped within a holding named ‘German Aerostructures Company’ (GAC). This new entity will be a fully-owned subsidiary of EADS, said the management to Le Journal du Dimanche. In a document obtained by the Sunday paper, EADS ensures that the creation of GAC, which will be led by Hans Lonsinger, the current director of its Augsburg facilities, “does not alter the group’s will to conduct the sale of all the sites concomitantly”. The company adds that this is an “intermediate stage” before a buyer is found. Cited by Reuters, an Airbus spokeswoman echoed on Saturday that “the goal to sell the factories has not changed”. La Tribune reports that EADS would have reactivated talks with investment funds initially interested, after negotiations with OHB failed. But the German government might veto foreign investors in the end. According to WirtschaftsWoche, Airbus CEO Thomas Enders justified this new turn of event with the worrying weakness of the dollar, which he described as a “sword of Damocles beginning to fall on us”. The French Airbus sites, for their part, should be partly sold off to Latecoere, as planned, while GKN will acquire 100 % of Filton, says Les Echos. German news agency DPA details that Latecoere would hold a 40 % stake in the Meaulte and Saint-Nazaire sites. The press largely expects the French trade unions to strongly react at this announcement and possibly call for strikes at Airbus. Hence, La Tribune has learnt, the managements of EADS and Airbus would have decided to accelerate the sale of Laupheim, specialised in aircraft cabins, in an effort to soothe their anger. According to the French newspaper, interested candidates include Zodiac (France), a team of Diehl (Germany) with Thales, Fisher (Austria) and AMT (US). Tore Prang, an Airbus spokesman, confirmed to Associated Press that the selection process for a buyer was in an advanced stage. AFP (20/04), Reuters (19/04), Associated Press (20/04), La Tribune, Les Echos, Le Figaro Economie, Aujourd’hui en France, France Soir, Le Journal du Dimanche (20/04), WirtschaftsWoche, Hamburger Abendblatt, Handelsblatt, Suddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt, Negocio