Julian Moxon/PARIS
The French Government's moves to start the process of privatising Aerospatiale have received a cautious welcome from the European aerospace industry, with the prospect that it will remove a key barrier to consolidation.
Aerospatiale president Yves Michot has been charged with developing proposals on the way in which the group could begin privatisation and to "-proceed with a stock market quotation". He has also been instructed to "-conclude rapidly strategic alliances in combat aircraft, tactical missiles and launchers".
The move was received with surprise in some quarters, the left wing Government of Lionel Jospin having stated last year that it saw "no reason" to sell off part or all of Aerospatiale as a precursor to taking part in the process of European aerospace industry restructuring.
Since then, however, both British Aerospace and Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa), which are now negotiating with Aerospatiale on the transformation of Airbus Industrie into a single corporate entity (SCE), have highlighted state ownership as the key block to further integration of the European industry.
Dasa says that it " welcomes the French Government's decision to open part of Aerospatiale's equity to the public sector because, as we have said several times in the past, a privatised Aerospatiale would be a better solution to the forthcoming Airbus SCE". The sentiment is echoed more cautiously by BAe, which says: "It's an important step - but we need to know how they're going to carry this through."
The Jospin initiative stops short of full privatisation, although analysts point out that the wording of the Government statement leaves Michot free to propose the ceding of majority ownership of Aerospatiale. The Government, which now holds an 85% share of the company, would almost certainly want to retain a "golden share" to protect its interests in Aerospatiale's strategic missiles business, however.
On 27 May, Michot named a new management team to carry through the changes, including Eurocopter president Jean-Francois Bigay as chief operating officer of the aeronautics division and Francois Auque, previously chief financial officer, as vice-president for international and commercial affairs.
In a further move which reflects the importance being attached to European alliances, strategy director Jean-Louis Fache has been given responsibility for the "Italian dossier", in the hope of attracting the space business of Alenia into the French-only Thomson-CSF-Dassault Equipment Alcatel-Aerospatiale (satellites) group and away from the Matra/British Aerospace/ Dasa line-up.
Aerospatiale is also charged with incorporating the 45% Government holding in Dassault Aviation into the future company. According to Philippe Gossard of stock market analyst Credit Lyonnais Securities Europe, this will involve splitting Dassault Aviation's combat aircraft division away from its civil aircraft business, "probably in the summer".
The combat aircraft component would go to Aerospatiale and the civil aircraft business to Dassault Industries - which will also take over Dassault Aviation's 34.5% stake in electronics manufacturer Dassault Systèmes.
Aerospatiale's combat aircraft division would then be merged with Aerospatiale-Airbus, creating a company with a similar profile to that of BAe and Dasa.
Source: Flight International
