NETHERLANDS: AIRBUS Parent company EADS braces for stormy meeting on dividend.

Shareholders in Airbus parent EADS meet for annual meeting amid divisions over the company's dividend and following heavy job losses. EADS shareholders gathered on Friday (May 4) for a potentially stormy annual meeting dominated by divisions over the company's dividend, following superjumbo airliner delays and heavy job cuts. Its board is split over the payout which French politicians and unions reckon would inflame anger over 10,000 Europe-wide job losses and a huge pay-off for former boss Noel Forgeard, who was sacked last summer over the A380 delivery problems. "It looks like we have Germans against Frenchmen, they are vying for control," said Rolf Fergusson, a shareholder and former pilot. "Basically, none of them have come to the conclusion yet that this is Europe, this is the European Union, right? And we use the same currency, right? And we will sink or swim together if Boeing drives us to bankruptcy or the Far East or so, we will all go down. We have to be able to bury our differences," said Fergusson. France's government and fellow core French shareholder Lagardere have been unable to persuade Germany's DaimlerChrysler to back down on demands for a dividend to reward minority shareholders who stuck with EADS through the most turbulent year in its history. That leaves the dividend decision in the hands of the firm's usually powerless minority shareholders. The decision is a hot political issue in France, coinciding with the last day of campaigning for presidential elections. The contest has been punctuated by concerns over big job cuts at both Airbus and telecoms equipment firm Alcatel Lucent. Airbus workers at Nantes and Saint-Nazaire in western France rejected an improved pay offer overnight and extended a week of wildcat strikes over an annual bonus offer of 3-5 euros each, which they called derisory next to Forgeard's golden parachute. France's two remaining presidential candidates agree former EADS co-chief executive Forgeard should return the money and that the firm should refrain from paying a dividend this year.

ITN Source | May 5, 2007

Tags:. .union. .potentially. .germans. .basically. .agree