European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co. Chief Executive Officer Louis Gallois said a probe into alleged insider trading shouldn’t harm a contract to build air-to-air refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force, Bloomberg News is reporting.
EADS, whose Airbus unit won the $35 billion U.S. order in partnership with Northrop Grumman Corp., is being investigated by France’s market regulator over suspect share sales by executives prior to the announcement of delays to the A380 superjumbo.
“I don’t think it will affect the tanker contract,” Gallois said today at a meeting with journalists in Paris. “The contract was awarded to Northrop and I don’t see how this completely separate issue can have an impact.”
Originally won by Boeing Co., the tanker contract was retendered in 2006 after a corruption scandal that led to the jailing of the Chicago-based company’s former chief financial officer and an ex-Pentagon official. The order was awarded to Northrop and EADS on Feb. 29, just as the Autorite des Marches Financiers’s insider-trading probe was gathering pace. Airbus CEO Tom Enders and chief salesman John Leahy are among 17 people under investigation, according to an AMF document published by online news service Mediapart a week ago.
EADS rose as much as 2.1 percent to 15.22 euros and was trading at 14.94 euros as of 2:39 p.m. in Paris. The stock has declined 32 percent this year, valuing the company at 12.2 billion euros ($19.3 billion).
