Germany is rushing to buy a stake in EADS, fearful that the owner of the shares, carmaker Daimler, could unload them on the open market and hurt Berlin’s influence in the aerospace group.
In a paper sent to the budget committee of Germany’s lower house of parliament, the economy ministry warned that Berlin risked losing out to France in its quest for equal control.
Germany’s scramble to buy the stake comes weeks after talks on a $45 billion merger between EADS and Britain’s BAE Systems collapsed. Berlin vetoed the deal out of concern it would further reduce its influence. Under the plans sketched out in the document, state-owned development bank KfW would increase its EADS stake to 13 per cent from 1 per cent. The German government and KfW declined to comment. – (Reuters)