EVEN if it were just a punt on a share, it would be deliciously well-timed. Vneshtorgbank, one of Russiaâs large, state-owned financial institutions, has bought 5 per cent of EADS, the European aerospace and defence group that runs Airbus.
The bank insists that it is a portfolio investment â EADS looks cheap, having lost a third of its value since the spring. Last summerâs news of delays on the A380 superjumbo programme pummelled the stock and the farcical shenanigans over the resignation of Noël Forgeard, the co-chief executive.
Into this eurobodge strides the Kremlin, and with purpose. It is almost inconceivable that a state-owned Russian bank would invest the best part of â¬1 billion (£677 million) in EADS without a nod from President Putin. EADS is politics with wings. It is prime contractor in the Eurofighter Typhoon project. It makes Ariane rockets and is controlling shareholder in Airbus Industrie.
Impatient with the warring Soviet design bureaus, Mr Putin has ordered a consolidation â the UAC, which will be led by the canny Mr Fedorov, whose local support for United Russia, the Presidentâs party, is helpful. It is clear that aerospace is one of a number of key global industries in which the President sees Russia securing, in time, a strategic position.
Russia has advantages: highly skilled and very cheap labour. Cheap power and ample supplies of aerospace metals, such as aluminium and titanium. Boeing is already employing more than 1,000 Russian designers in a Moscow office.
Article in full
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13130-2355041,00.html
The bank insists that it is a portfolio investment â EADS looks cheap, having lost a third of its value since the spring. Last summerâs news of delays on the A380 superjumbo programme pummelled the stock and the farcical shenanigans over the resignation of Noël Forgeard, the co-chief executive.
Into this eurobodge strides the Kremlin, and with purpose. It is almost inconceivable that a state-owned Russian bank would invest the best part of â¬1 billion (£677 million) in EADS without a nod from President Putin. EADS is politics with wings. It is prime contractor in the Eurofighter Typhoon project. It makes Ariane rockets and is controlling shareholder in Airbus Industrie.
Impatient with the warring Soviet design bureaus, Mr Putin has ordered a consolidation â the UAC, which will be led by the canny Mr Fedorov, whose local support for United Russia, the Presidentâs party, is helpful. It is clear that aerospace is one of a number of key global industries in which the President sees Russia securing, in time, a strategic position.
Russia has advantages: highly skilled and very cheap labour. Cheap power and ample supplies of aerospace metals, such as aluminium and titanium. Boeing is already employing more than 1,000 Russian designers in a Moscow office.
Article in full
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13130-2355041,00.html
