Munich - European aerospace giant EADS stepped up its cost cutting drive Wednesday by announcing a list of companies it hopes will take over plants in Britain, France and Germany which are part of the company's Airbus' operations. The list of preferred bidders includes Britain's GKN, France's Latecoere as well Germany's MT Aerospace.
At one point, Spirit AeroSystems from the United States had been considered a favourite for some of the plants but the company has not been included on the bidders' list.
Indeed, with the move to dispose of the plants raising the risks of job cuts, EADS has faced considerable political pressure over the negotiations with potential buyers.
With this in mind, the EADS's announcement indicates that the plants in France, Germany and Britain might remain in French, German and British hands respectively.
While EADS is negotiating with MT Aerospace for three sites in Germany, Latecoere is in the running to buy two sites in France and GKN is negotiating to buy a part of Airbus' operations in Filton in Britain.
"The ongoing divestment of sites and the building of a network of partners for Airbus allows EADS to focus its resources on core activities," EADS chief Louis Gallois said.
He said the move "helps EADS to reduce financing needs in a period strained by conjunction of costly programmes and weak dollar uncertainty."
Indeed, the push to sell off the Airbus sites, which together employ a total of 7,400 employees comes against the backdrop of a major restructuring of the company's European operations aimed at cutting costs in the face of tough competition from US rival Boeing.
This has been intensified by the weaker dollar, which last month fell to a record low against the euro just short of 1.50 dollars.
EADS said it expects sale of the Airbus plants to be completed by the middle of next year.
