15 May 07. EADS emphatically denies the reports that appeared on the “Capital.fr” website on 14 May 2007, and which have been repeated elsewhere in the media. These reports suggested that Jean-Paul Gut, COO of EADS, having “been pressured to leave the company” is “claiming €12m in compensation”, partly covered by a “welcome bonus” paid by the Gulf Emirate of Qatar. This information is completely unfounded and the sums mentioned are pure fantasy. The spreading of this false information can only have been intended to harm the EADS Group and one of its leading managers, Jean-Paul Gut. Furthermore, the EADS company deplores the unacceptable and totally false statements made about the involvement of the Emirate of Qatar, its partner. Consequently, EADS reserves all rights in this respect, including to take legal action for the purpose of stopping this campaign of disinformation.
10 May 07. Firth Rixson, the major provider of highly engineered forged, cast and other specialty metal products, today announced that it has acquired Future Tech, a southern California based business specializing in the machining of ultra large aerospace components. Future Tech is a premier supplier of rough machining, a process used to prepare forged rings for finish machining and final fabrication. The addition of Future Tech’s capabilities vertically integrates rough machining at Firth Rixson’s large seamless ring manufacturing facilities, including Schlosser Forge, Viking, and Forged Metals. This internal rough machining capability will further reduce Firth Rixson’s manufacturing cycle time, while expanding large and ultra large ring capacity. David C. Mortimer, CEO of Firth Rixson, said, “We are delighted to announce the acquisition of Future Tech, which marks another exciting step in the development of our company. Many of our customers require rough machining preparation of our ring products for their final processing. This initiative enhances our capacity to grow with our customers, especially within the large and ultra large ring market.”
14 May 07. Thales Q1 2007 revenues and order intake:
* Revenues increase by 7% to €2.2bn including the transport and security businesses contributed by Alcatel-Lucent stable on a like-for-like basis (+ 0.7%)
* Order intake increases by 24% to €2.15bn an increase of 18% on a like-for-like basis
With the divestment of non-strategic businesses over recent years, Thales’s portfolio of businesses in 2007 has been refocused on the company’s core competencies for critical information systems and has been strengthened by the major strategic operations concluded with Alcatel-Lucent and DCNS in recent months. Thales’s businesses are organised in three main domains: defence, aerospace and civil security.
These strategic operations were finalised progressively during the first months of 2007. The contribution of the transport and security businesses of Alcatel-Lucent was approved by the Extraordinary General Meeting of 5 January 2007; the sale to DCNS of Thales’s surface naval businesses in France (excluding equipment for naval programmes), concurrent with the acquisition by Thales of an interest in DCNS1, was finalised on 29 March 2007; and the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent’s satellite businesses became effective on 6 April 2007.
The Q1 2007 figures therefore only reflect part of the changes in the scope of Thales’s business, i.e., the consolidation from January 2007 of the transport and security businesses contributed by Alcatel-Lucent. The DCNS operation and the acquisition of the satellite businesses2 will only be taken into account from Q2 2007
First-quarter consolidated revenues stood at 2,194m euros, compared with 2,053m euros at 31 March 2006. On a like-for-like basis (i.e., with constant exchange rates and excluding changes in the scope of consolidation), first-quarter revenues were slightly higher than in 2006 (+0.7%).
Exchange rate fluctuations reduced revenues slightly, by 26m euros, while changes