Air Transport

French stock exchange regulators investigating Airbus parent EADS believe there is evidence that insider trading and breaching of market information regulations took place at the company.

Representatives from the College of the Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) met yesterday to examine the conclusions of a long-running inquiry into financial information delivered by EADS since May 2005.

AMF has issued a “notification of objection”, stating that it has evidence of failure to comply with market obligations on information and failure of individuals holding privileged information to abstain from market intervention.

It has not identified any EADS or Airbus executives in its statement, or even said how many people are affected, but stresses that individuals are presumed to be innocent.

The AMF inquiry came to light after Airbus’ admission in 2006 that its A380 programme was suffering severe production delays, a disclosure which caused EADS’ share prices to fall heavily.

Some EADS executives, including former Airbus and EADS chief Noel Forgeard, had sold batches of shares in the company a few months this announcement. Forgeard subsequently denied having advance knowledge of the A380 problems at the time of the sale.

EADS today says it acknowledges the AMF’s conclusions, and states: “In the first step of what is likely to be a long process, the AMF College has considered that the elements gathered during the investigative phase of the enquiry – as interpreted by AMF’s investigators – do not justify a dismissal of the case.”

It adds that AMF is to notify the company and executives of any charges against them.

While EADS admits that the development might have “significant consequences on its image and reputation”, chief executive Louis Gallois has staunchly backed the company and its executives.

“At last EADS and its managers concerned will be in a position to defend themselves,” he says. “EADS will support its managers in their defence. It intends to demonstrate that it has applied standards of excellence when communicating to the market, and has acted with full transparency.”

AMF is sending its full report to the prosecution office, the Parquet, in Paris. It says that, over the next few days, those involved will have access to the information on which the investigators have based their conclusions and will be invited to present a defence.