Summary

As a long-time critic of Airbus and its corporate dishonesty, arrogance and incompetence, it comes as absolutely no surprise to me that huge fines are being proposed by the French investment industry watchdog AMF against EADS and seven executives -- EADS remains the worst-managed company in the aerospace industry today. Because if you can't trust the executives, as the beleaguered supply chain knows only too well, who can you trust?

Analysis

"Seven current and former executives of Airbus and its parent company EADS including Noël Forgeard, former EADS co-chief executive, should be fined for alleged insider share dealing offences according to a provisional report prepared for the French financial markets regulator."
 
[Financial Times, July 29, 2009]
 
Reality is catching up with Airbus and the shockwaves of the proposed $17.3m penalties against the self-serving and disingenuous current and former executives who have ruined EADS and Airbus in just three short years will be felt for a decade or more.
 
AMF, the Aurorité des Marchés Financiers -- a sort of French financial ombudsman -- feels there is a case to answer against several EADS and Airbus personnel as well as EADS itself as a company, on allegations of A380-related insider trading.
 
Personal and professional dishonesty, greed, arrogance, ignorance and hubris -- Airbus 2009. The proposed EADS fine is just under $1m.
 
Are these AMF findings a surprise to anyone? Only to the blinkered clueless who believe Airbus is "an institution" (that one was funny) or that it is in some way representative of European aerospace (ask BAE Systems or Rolls-Royce, among others, about that...). GLG News readers have plenty of  material at their disposal which clearly points out that Airbus was and is a dishonest and mismanaged apology for a company. 
 
And that's just a selection from the past four months. As a parent, you wouldn't want your teenage child to hang about with people like this. Another embarrassing day for Airbus...
 
EADS is now totally discredited, John Leahy, Airbus' chief commercial officer, obviously believes that good commerce begins at home. Or was that charity? Same thing, so long as someone else is paying?
 
The ignominy and embarrassment of this AMF report merely reflects the reality that is EADS and Airbus today and which has been known about for years. Operational and moral bankruptcy don't always go hand-in-hand, but they certainly would appear to do so here.
 
There will be changes, and not before time.
 
 
 
 
 

Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.