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Tuesday June 20, 8:01 PMEADS says no German call for Forgeard to quitMUNICH, June 20 (Reuters) - Airbus parent EADS denied on Tuesday that its German bosses want French co-chief executive Noel Forgeard to resign over a costly delay of the A380 superjumbo and a stock trading probe.The European aerospace firm is in turmoil after news of a delay in the Airbus A380 doubledecker sparked a profit warning and a 25 percent plunge in EADS' shares last week. German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Tuesday that "the German side" had demanded that Forgeard step down at a meeting on Monday called to discuss the problems. "I can clearly deny that," said EADS spokesman Michael Hauger when asked about the open call for Forgeard's resignation. EADS shares were up 2.58 percent at 20.67 euros versus Paris' CAC-40 index which was off 0.28 percent as of 1132 GMT. EADS has one German and one French chairman and similarly two chief executives in a structure designed to reflect its even balance of key German and French shareholders. At the meeting on Monday, EADS co-Chairman Manfred Bischoff represented top German shareholder DaimlerChrysler while top French stakeholder Lagardere was represented by EADS co-Chairman Arnaud Lagardere. Forgeard is under particular pressure after it was revealed he sold EADS stock in March, not long before he said first signs of a risk of a delay in the A380 surfaced. Other EADS executives also sold at the time. German and French regulators are probing trading in the shares and on Monday France's AMF stock exchange authority visited Airbus headquarters in Toulouse. Forgeard moved to EADS last year after seven years at the helm of Airbus, during which time the planemaker's controversial 12-billion-euro ($15.11 billion) A380 project was launched. The latest major delay, its second, has sparked demands for compensation from angry customers and even warnings that some buyers may cancel orders for the $300 million planes. "We could cancel and are considering cancelling all or some of our A380 order ... We are not happy and on safe ground to cancel the order," International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC) Chief Executive Steven Udvar-Hazy told financial newswire Bloomberg. ILFC, which has 442 Airbus planes in its fleet, has ordered 10 of the A380, which seat 555 passengers in three-class configuration and as many as 853 in an all-economy layout. Malaysian Airline System Bhd has also said it is reviewing a pledge to buy six of the planes. Airbus says it can still get the first of the massive planes to launch customer Singapore Airlines by the end of the year. It has blamed the latest six-to-seven-month delay in the project on complicated wiring needed to power inflight entertainment and other systems. "The new delays are ...traceable to bottlenecks formed in the definition, manufacturing and installation of electrical systems and resulting harnesses," the planemaker said last week. As it struggles to get the A380 to customers, Airbus needs to press on with a new mid-sized model to counter resurgent rival Boeing Co. . Airbus has said it will reveal its plans for the mooted A350 by next month. Boeing said on Tuesday its 787 Dreamliner, due in 2008, remains on schedule after a recent magazine article said the project, like the superjumbo, faced technological challenges which could delay it. (Additional reporting by Fang Yan in Shanghai, James Regan in Frankfurt, Tim Hepher in Paris) |
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