EADS co-chief executive Tom Enders has welcomed a proposal from new French president Nicolas Sarkozy to bring more industrial or financial shareholders into the European aerospace and defence company.
"The industrial partners have always been the most important element of the shareholding structure," Enders said following a speech to the US Chamber of Commerce. "There is no reason to think that financial partners, including ones from other parts of the world, could not acquire a capital stake."
During his election campaign, Sarkozy pledge to dismantle the shareholder pact that miantains parity between French and German ownership of EADS. He said the Airbus parent's financial crisis was not "a governance problem but a shareholding problem" and proposed bringing in new private-sector industrial and financial investors.
Enders says he is optimistic about the prospects for EADS and for transatlantic co-operation, adding that Sarkozy "may be a contributor".
Source: Flight International
