Airbus has terminated negotiations with the OHB / MT Aerospace consortium regarding the sale of the Airbus sites in Nordenham, Varel and the EADS site in Augsburg since a viable industrial and financial solution was not achievable.
„We have always said that we will only go for economically and industrially sound solutions. We want to ensure the future of our sites with strong partners who share technology, development costs and capital investments and are able to deliver large work packages at competitive costs. We simply could not get there with OHB“, said Airbus President and CEO Tom Enders.
Airbus will continue searching for other solutions and, in parallel, will proceed with the carve-out of the three sites. The negotiations concerning the partial sale of Filton, the partnering for Meaulte/Saint Nazaire-Ville and the sale of Laupheim continue.
However, the volatility of the financial markets and a Dollar close to 1.60 – as opposed to 1.35 when the divestment process was started – have created difficult market conditions that are not conducive to an easy and smooth implementation of this process. In this environment, Airbus will have to consider different approaches or interim steps that will finally lead to the same goal.
„There will be no turning back. Our site divestment and partnership objectives are part of a long-term business strategy to which we are fully committed. What drives our schedule is the A350 timetable. We are launching the necessary investments to secure the timely entry into service of the A350 with our customers,“ said Tom Enders.
