Julian Moxon/PARIS Andrew Doyle/BONN
Aerospatiale is to spin off its major operations into four wholly owned subsidiaries in a move it says is intended to aid the reorganisation of the European aerospace and defence industries.
The new subsidiaries are to be known as Aerospatiale Airbus, Aerospatiale ATR, Aerospatiale Missiles and Aerospatiale Strategic and Space Launchers, with the spin-offs scheduled for 1 April.
Elements of Matra Hautes Technologies will be incorporated into the new divisions as Lagardère becomes the group's core strategic partner, with Matra-Marconi Space likely to be combined with Aerospatiale Lanceurs and Matra/BAe Dynamics with Aerospatiale missiles.
Aerospatiale says the move stems partly from the need to separate its Airbus operation in preparation for the transformation of the four-nation consortium into a single corporate entity (SCE), although it is also likely to aid the absorption of the Matra businesses.
The French manufacturing giant saw net profits drop to Fr1.04 billion ($172 million) in 1998, down 27% on 1997, despite a 7.5% rise in the turnover of its continuing businesses to Fr54.9 billion. The year-end order book stood at Fr181.9 billion.
Aerospatiale blames the decline in profits on operating provisions of Fr1.4 billion relating to ATR and Airbus, the reorganisation of its hedging arrangements, which cost a further Fr699 million, and a loss on extraordinary items of Fr517 million. Set against these losses were capital gains amounting to Fr1.09 billion from the sale of satellite operations.
• French aerospace industry body Gifas has meanwhile described 1998 as a record year, with orders climbing 20.6% to Fr207.3 billion. Civil business accounted for the bulk of the total, although the highest growth was in defence orders, reflecting the deal with the UAE for 30 new Dassault Mirage 2000-9s and upgrading of 33 more.
Despite the healthy figures, Gifas president Jean-Paul Béchat expects a "return to normal" over the next two or three years, and complains of a steady decline in government funding for military R&D compared to the USA.
The German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) makes a similar complaint about attempts to reduce Germany's DM300 million ($165 million) annual aerospace research budget to 20% of that total.
Managing director Hans Eberhard Birke says that proposals for industry to raise its share of funding from 50% to 60% are "simply unrealistic", and adds that regional governments are unlikely to be able to come up with their shares this year.
Source: Flight International