Airbus has sold its 26.8% stake in Finnish defence company Patria back to the country’s government as part of its wider defence and space restructuring.
It bought the minority stake back in 2001 when the European aerospace giant was known as EADS, but…
Airbus has sold its 26.8% stake in Finnish defence company Patria back to the country’s government as part of its wider defence and space restructuring.
It bought the minority stake back in 2001 when the European aerospace giant was known as EADS, but recently it has been looking to shed a number of assets to simplify its defence and space unit Airbus DS to focus on warplanes, missiles, launchers and satellites.
Airbus DS announced plans in September this year to divest its commercial satcoms services unit, alongside a suite of other non-core assets including Fairchild Controls, Rostock System-Technik, AvDef, ESG and Atlas Elektronik.
Rupert Pearce, CEO of British satellite operator Inmarsat, told investors during a conference call on 6 November that he had not ruled out buying the commercial satcoms business.
Airbus expects to wrap up the Patria sale before the end of the year for an undisclosed sum.
Marwan Lahoud, chief strategy and marketing officer for the Airbus group, said: “With the sale of our stake in Patria, we are implementing the conclusions drawn from our portfolio review earlier this year for the future set-up of our defence and security business.
“I thank the Finnish government for its cooperation and support in completing this transaction so smoothly.”
The Finnish state has meanwhile said it is looking for a new industrial partner for Patria as a minority shareholder.
Eero Heliövaara, Director-General of the Ownership Steering Department of the Finnish Prime Minister’s Office, said: “The current solution is only temporary in nature and the owner will initiate measures with Patria to seek a new minority partner early next year.”
Patria operates its own ESA-certified ‘clean room’, and its space products include signal processing equipment, interface and control electronics, power subsystems and equipment, and high performance processing systems. It also makes larger military products such as tanks and mortar systems.
The group posted €824.8m (US$1.02bn) in sales and an operating profit of €97.1m (US$120.3m) for 2013.
