. Medical and Hospital News .




MILPLEX
Germany feared bridesmaid role in EADS-BAE venture: analysts
by Staff Writers
Berlin (AFP) Oct 10, 2012

France's Hollande says firms decided to call off EADS/BAE merger
Paris (AFP) Oct 10, 2012 - The failure of merger talks between European aerospace giant EADS and British arms maker BAE Systems was the "companies' decision," French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday.

Hollande's comment contradicted an earlier statement by the two companies that the talks had broken down because of the failure of the governments involved to reach an agreement.

The French President said his government had explained to the companies' directors "what we could accept and what we could not allow," in terms of a reduction in the size of the state's shareholding in EADS, the implications for production centres and jobs and France's defence interests.

"All these elements were given to the companies. After it is their choice," Hollande said, underlining that the breakdown in the merger talks was "neither a cause for regret nor a reason to rejoice."

EADS chief surprised by German opposition to merger
Paris (AFP) Oct 10, 2012 - Tom Enders, the chief executive of aerospace group EADS, said Wednesday he was taken by surprise at the level of German opposition to the proposed blockbuster merger with BAE Systems.

"Im ready to admit that we never expected to face such opposition against the deal, in particular not in Berlin," Enders said in a letter to employees obtained by AFP.

Enders noted the "strong efforts by the French and UK governments" to overcome what proved to be "insurmountable" political hurdles facing a tie-up that would have created a $45 billion (35 billion euro) aerospace giant.

For Enders, the merger was the "logical, long-overdue step in the European integration of our industry" and that the ill-fated move was true to the company's longterm strategy plan, known as Vision 2000.

Enders said the company would now "take the time to clearly draw a number of lessons from this experience" including a "review of our Group strategy and defence activities in particular."

"If anything, our relationship (with BAE) has been strengthened through this endeavour," he said.

"This is an excellent basis for the further development of our business ties in the defence field."

A merger to create the biggest aerospace group in the world between EADS and BAE Systems collapsed on Wednesday, with analysts saying Germany shot it down because the country feared it would be sidelined.

But German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere denied the collapse was Germany's fault.


Germany feared being left on the sidelines of any tie-up between European aerospace giant EADS and British arms maker BAE Systems, analysts say, after Berlin was blamed for blocking the deal.

Talks on the potential $45-billion (35-billion-euro) mega-merger, ditched on Wednesday, were blocked by Germany, a source close to the matter told AFP.

In a terse statement, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said that Berlin had "taken note" of the decision.

"For the German government, the priority now is that EADS continues to develop positively in all its business activities," Steffen Seibert said.

Peter Hintze, Berlin's coordinator on the deal and a senior economic ministry official, told Der Spiegel newsweekly: "I am convinced that EADS can best show its strengths on the global market independently."

While in public, officials stressed that Paris, Berlin and London were striving for a common line, negotiations behind the scenes appeared to have become much more strained.

The often turbulent relations within EADS between France and Germany were complicated this time by the involvement of Britain, with all three European powers holding a veto right over the planned merger.

"The Germans are worried that there will be a duopoly with Toulouse (Airbus headquarters in southern France) in charge of civil matters and London for defence," said Henrik Uterwedde, deputy director of the German-French Institute in Ludwigsburg, before the talks collapsed.

"They want a fair share of the pie," he told AFP.

Since the potential merger was announced last month, Berlin repeated almost daily the official line: they are in talks with all players and the deal is so complex that no public statements would be made before a final decision.

Just minutes before news of the breakdown in talks, Seibert was refusing comment at a regular news briefing.

But German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler had also insisted that "Germany has to preserve its interests" while recognising that this merger was an "undoubted opportunity."

With possibly less than a year to go until national elections, Berlin was sensitive to the need to protect its factories and tens of thousands of EADS-linked jobs in Germany.

There are sizeable Airbus assembly plants in Bremen, in the north of the country, as well as factories building the Eurofighter combat plane in the southern state of Bavaria.

Berlin was also at pains to defend its research and development capabilities and feared being relegated to a mere cog in a wider machine whose main wheels were turning in Paris and London, analysts said.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space company chief Tom Enders, a German, already ruffled feathers in Berlin government circles by shifting the group's headquarters to Toulouse, when it was previously split between Germany and France.

Berlin wanted to revisit this decision, a demand considered "unreasonable" by EADS since "the choice of headquarters is an economic decision."

Enders sought to calm tempers by pledging, in the country's most widely-read daily, Bild, that he would consider job guarantees if the merger went ahead.

"I am so convinced of the merits of our project that I am prepared to talk about attractive job and headquarters guarantees that I could not consider for EADS (on its own)," Enders said.

Others on the German political scene were concerned that Berlin would lose control of its say in the defence operations of the group.

"My fear is that the defence activities of the firm will be divided between France and Britain," said Martin Lindner, parliamentary vice-president of the Free Democrats, junior coalition partners in the German government.

"I do not want us to be completely dependent on outsiders for such a key industry," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.

Analyst Uterwedde said that the deal was always about politics rather than economic or commercial considerations.

"EADS is and remains a political company," he said.

Writing before the final collapse of the deal, Spiegel, however, pointed to the human side of the failed merger.

"What happened between the three European countries last week is nothing short of a political-economic earthquake -- a seismic tremor that potentially puts thousands of jobs at risk," said the magazine.

Investors seemed not to share the concerns, however, pushing EADS shares more than four percent higher in Wednesday trading.

EADS, BAE Systems: how they measure up
Paris (AFP) Oct 10, 2012 - EADS and BAE Systems are two European Aerospace titans which tried and failed to overcome national politics to build a joint future.

They insisted after their proposed merger collapsed, that the marriage was conceived with industrial logic and destined to give birth to a formidable civil and military group.

The two firms now face a different future in the global aerospace industry where the main competitors today are in the United States and tomorrow possibly also in emerging countries such as China and Brazil.

EADS, based in Germany and France, does most of its business in the civil aviation sector which is expected to generate huge demand for airliners for decades.

BAE Systems of Britain specialises in defence equipment, a sector as vital to national security as it is clouded by pressures on national budgets.

Both companies are important as hubs of technological and industrial excellence, and employment, in economies suffering from a perception of industrial decline. And both are important to their national economies as big exporters.

EADS was worth 23.15 billion euros ($29.80 billion) before the announcement on September 12 that EADS and BAE Systems wanted to tie up.

BAE Systems was worth 11.81 billion pounds (14.7 billion euros, $18.92 billion). This gave a joint capitalisation of 37.85 billion euros at that time.

The two companies said that a merged entity would have been worth about $45 billion (35 billion euros).

Under the now-abandoned proposal, EADS and its shareholders would have accounted for 60 percent of the merged entity and BAE Systems shareholders 40 percent.

Analysts said that the deal fell through because Germany feared being sidelined, with civilian activities of the merged group being run from France and the military business from Britain.

EADS:

A central feature of the structure of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) is that Germany and France have equal voting rights, each accounting for 22.35 percent of the total.

The French state owns about 15.0 percent and Lagardere about 7.5 percent, but Lagardere provides all the French directors for voting on behalf of this French holding.

The German industrial group Daimler owns 14.85 percent, having transferred an interest of 7.5 percent to a group of core investors including the KfW state bank, making a total of 22.35 percent, but Daimler votes on the board for the whole of this holding.

Spain owns 5.45 percent of EADS. The rest of the company is in private hands via the stock market.

EADS had emerged from a restructuring and merger of French, German and Spanish aerospace firms in 2000.

The deeper origins of its main business Airbus lay in a complex government structure which took account of French and German national interests.

Six years ago EADS ran into serious financial problems arising from delays to its programme for building the A380 superjumbo jet.

These delays revealed deep flaws in management and industrial procedures and the group launched a vast programme to cut costs, to restructure and to diversify its cost base away from dependence on the euro since most aerospace sales are made in dollars.

Airbus builds airliners and military transport aircraft. Its parent group EADS also builds satellites and rockets via Astrium, and helicopters via Eurocopter. EADS also has a defence arm called Cassidian.

EADS main competitor is Boeing of the United States.

EADS recently took a big step on Boeing's home ground, saying it would open an assembly plant costing $600 million in Alabama which will produce the first US-built Airbus aircraft by 2016.

The initiative came after Airbus lost a big US Air Force contract for military refuelling tanker aircraft. The contract was awarded to Boeing after a politically charged contest.

The EADS group employs about 133,000 people at more than 170 sites worldwide, and for 2011 reported sales of 49.1 billion euros and a net profit of 1.033 billion euros.

EADS shares were at 29.65 euros immediately before the announcement of talks, and closed on Tuesday at 26.10, a fall of 11.97 percent.

BAE SYSTEMS:

BAE Systems, based in London, is an independent quoted company. The biggest single shareholder is the Invesco Perpetual fund with 13.3 percent.

The British government has a golden share which can prevent any foreigner from holding more than 15 percent of the voting rights.

BAE Systems achieves about 45 percent of its sales in the US market. The group is involved in building missile systems, tanks, torpedoes, submarines and fighter aircraft, and provides equipment for security.

Until 2006, BAE Systems owned 20 percent of Airbus but withdrew to focus on the US market and against a background of long-standing unease at the structure for governance and political influence.

BAE Systems was born in 1999 when British Aerospace bought the British General Electric company.

Its main competitors are the US firms Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon.

In the United States, the group is a key supplier for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and is also responsible for the Trident nuclear submarine programme.

BAE Systems employs 83,600 people, mainly in Australia, Britain, India, Saudi Arabia and the United States, and reported sales last year of 19.154 billion pounds. Net profit was 1.24 billion pounds.

Immediately before the deal was announced, shares in BAE Systems were being traded at 328.70 pence. At the close of business on Tuesday they stood at 325.40 pence, a decline of 1.0 percent.

Related Links
The Military Industrial Complex at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries


EADS/BAE deal collapse not Germany's fault: defence minister
Brussels (AFP) Oct 10, 2012 - The collapse of the mega aerospace and defence deal between Britain's BAE Systems and Europe's EADS was not Germany's fault, German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said on Wednesday.

Asked if German opposition was to blame, after France and Germany appeared close to an accord on the merger, de Maiziere said he "did not share" that opinion.

"I take note of (the failure of the deal) and I am not totally surprised," de Maiziere said, adding: "It is a commercial decision."

He said such a deal always has two sides to it, the offering side and in this case "the defence ministries, that is the taxpayer."

The two firms had issued a joint statement earlier which said: "BAE Systems and EADS announce that they have decided to terminate their discussions" on a merger.

The groups insisted the deal had been based on "sound industrial logic" which "represented a unique opportunity to create a combination from two strong and successful companies greater than the sum of the parts."

The $45 billion (35-billion-euro) deal would have created a huge aerospace and defence company spanning the globe, with a key foothold in the US market via BAE that would have been more than able to compete with US giant Boeing, EADS' long-time rival.

Analysts had suggested that Germany was unhappy with the planned tie-up because it feared being sidelined.

It looked on Tuesday as if France had opened the way for an extension of the talks, with sources saying it had agreed to limit its shareholding to leave Paris and Berlin with equal shares.

But analysts said Germany feared that if the deal went ahead, the power behind the civilian arm of the group would shift to Toulouse in southern France where airliner manufacturer Airbus is based.

Military operations would have been run from Britain where BAE Systems is based.

One source, who declined to be named, said that "it did not work because the Germans blocked it."

In London, BAE Systems said it had terminated the talks because some of the governments involved could not reach an agreement.

BAE Systems chief executive Ian King said the firms "were unable to reach an acceptable agreement with our various government stakeholders."

He said: "We believe the merger presented a unique opportunity for BAE Systems and EADS to combine two world-class and complementary businesses to create a world leading aerospace, defence and security group."



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



MILPLEX
BAE Systems faces tough future after merger collapse
London (AFP) Oct 10, 2012
British arms maker BAE Systems faced an uncertain future on Wednesday after the collapse of a proposed mega-merger with European aerospace giant EADS, as indebted governments slash their defence spending. BAE was also seen as unlikely to receive a takeover proposal from a fresh suitor in the near term after the pair said they had ended merger owing to a lack of accord with "various" governme ... read more


MILPLEX
12 Chinese workers killed, 24 hurt in dormitory blaze

Planning can cut costs of disasters: World Bank

Far, far beyond wrist radios

World leaders meet on disaster management in Japan

MILPLEX
Using LabSat in the absence of GPS

New Telit GPS Miniature Receiver Based on Latest 3-D Embedded Technology is Market's Smallest

Key flight for Europe's GPS is cleared for launch

Spirent and ETS-Lindgren Collaborate to Advance A-GPS Performance for LTE Smartphones

MILPLEX
New human neurons from adult cells right there in the brain

Dating encounters between modern humans and Neandertals

Last speaker of 'fisherfolk' dialect dies

Compelling evidence that brain parts evolve independently

MILPLEX
Sitting on top of the world

US zoo cites liver disease in baby panda's death

Cambrian fossil pushes back evolution of complex brains

Swimming with hormones: Researchers unravel ancient urges that drive the social decisions of fish

MILPLEX
Glowing DNA invention points towards high speed disease detection

Mosquito genetics may offer clues to malaria control

Moving forward with controversial H5N1 research

'Brain-eating' amoeba kills 10 in Pakistan: officials

MILPLEX
Liu still China's invisible man two years after Nobel

China bloggers expose more corruption: reports

'Stunned' Mo Yan welcomes Nobel prize

Mo Yan of China wins Nobel Literature Prize

MILPLEX
Dutch navy detains alleged Somali pirates after attack

Colombia hopes FARC deal will bring peace

Mexico captures Zetas cartel capo 'El Taliban': navy

Indian state in grip of a drug epidemic

MILPLEX
IMF wants to give Greece two more years on deficit

China to 'lose out' by Tokyo IMF no-shows: Lagarde

Swiss seek Spain's support in EU spat

China finance chiefs to skip Japan IMF meetings


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement