In the latest twist to the French aerospace industry's lengthy reorganisation, Alcatel president Serge Tchuruk has resigned from the board of state-owned Aerospatiale, citing a conflict of interest between his senior positions on the two recently reformed defence electronics and aerospace groupings.

Tchuruk had been on the board of the state-owned company since 1994, but told Aerospatiale president Yves Michot he could not continue in the position because of competitive issues between the Thomson-Alcatel-Dassault Indus-tries-Aerospatiale group, formed by the Government in April, and the Aerospatiale/Matra Hautes Technologies (MHT) enterprise created in July.

The former grouping saw Aerospatiale's satellite interests disappear as part of the creation of a new satellites business led by Alcatel Space. However, the creation of the Aerospatiale-MHT alliance effectively returned it to the satellites sector through its involvement with the Matra Marconi Space (MMS) joint venture with the UK's GEC-Marconi. Tchuruk claims the agreement between the four companies comprising the Thomson-CSF grouping specified that none of the participants were allowed to become a part of any competing enterprise for at least two years if it took more than a 25% stake in it - close to the amount that Matra holds in MMS, although uncertainty surrounds whether this means the agreement has been broken. Tchuruk's move is seen as being more significant politically than industrially.

Source: Flight International