EADS stake decision could leave Berlin in bind
Torn between the need to save money and the desire to maintain German influence in the European aerospace group EADS, Berlin could be in a bind if automaker Daimler seeks to reduce its holding.
"We have to make a break from nationalisations, they were necessary during the crisis but only during the crisis," Michael Fuchs, economic spokesman for the ruling conservative CDU/CSU parties, told the Berliner Zeitung daily on Friday.
Fuchs said a desire to maintain the shareholder balance in EADS between French and German interests did not justify the government taking a direct participation.
He spoke to the newspaper following reports that Daimler, which owns 15 percent of the equity in EADS, the parent group of the plane maker Airbus, wants to sell half of its stake.
Such a move would upset the balance of French and German interests in EADS, because Daimler also controls 22.5 percent of the voting rights, the same level as that held by the French state and industrial group Lagardere.
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