EADS targets new acquisitions in the US.

Following its $ 350M acquisition of Californiabased emergency solutions firm PlantCML last month, EADS wants to take advantage of the weak dollar and proceed with further takeovers in the “defence, security and services sectors in the US”, Louis Gallois told the French Ajef journalist association. “We think it is a good time to buy, both because of our strong cash position and because of the dollar’s valuation”. EADS has € 8.3Bn in cash, it said on announcing its quarterly results last week. This strategy is also part of the group’s effort to balance its Airbus and “non-Airbus” activities by 2020. Mr Gallois said the group had “a target list in the US” of companies valued at “less than $ 4.5Bn (€ 2.9Bn)”. DRS Technologies, however, will not be part of that list anymore as EADS has finally decided not to counter-bid against Finmeccanica’s $ 5.2Bn (€ 3.4Bn) offer. Mr Gallois said this decision was taken on precise “cost-efficiency” motives, following a review led by the group’s M&A teams. Le Figaro Economie comments that EADS starts playing the “globalisation game” as it seeks to massively increase its purchases in dollar and accelerate relocations outside Europe. The company will soon start building a new assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama, after it won the US tanker contract. Its subsidiary Airbus, for its part, selected US-based Spirit AeroSystems to build part of the fuselage for its future A350 XWB. Reuters (20/05), AFX (20/05), Bloomberg (20/05), La Tribune, Le Figaro Economie, Les Echos, International Herald Tribune, Negocio