BAE og EADS - Mulig megamerger

EADS, BAE in tie-up talks

By Carola Hoyos, Anousha Sakoui, James Boxell and Gerrit Wiesmann, FT.com

September 13, 2012 -- Updated 0047 GMT (0847 HKT)

 

A model of an EADs M-346 fighter jet is displayed at the Singapore Airshow 2010 in Singapore on February 2, 2010.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• EADS and BAE Systems discuss a €38bn tie-up that would create a European rival to Boeing
• Europe's largest aerospace company and biggest defense contractor in talks
• "It is a question of a complex transaction with far-reaching security and industrial policy implications"

(Financial Times) -- EADS and BAE Systems, Europe's largest aerospace company and biggest defence contractor, are discussing a €38bn tie-up that would create a European rival to Boeing and reshape the global defence industry.

EADS would control 60 per cent of the enlarged group, which would have a unified board and management structure. European governments have talked for more than a decade about consolidating their national champions to create a pan-continental competitor to Boeing, the biggest commercial aerospace company in the US and also its second-largest defence contractor.

EADS in particular has long envied Boeing's ability to ride out the cycles of each industry. If their tie-up is approved, a combined EADS and BAE would be a formidable force in the aerospace and defence industries, serving customers from Washington to Riyadh.

"The deal would be the single most significant European response to US defence and aerospace consolidation and the huge defence economic power it created," said Sash Tusa, analyst at Echelon.

The deal requires approval from EADS's board as well as France, Germany, the UK and the US, which is BAE's largest customer. In a terse statement, the German government said: "It is a question of a complex transaction with far-reaching security and industrial policy implications."