Overcoming Quarrels
August 27, 2007
"If we succeed, then it will be a collective success and if we fail, it will be a collective failure," Gallois told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Monday.
The EADS and its subsidiary Airbus previously had an awkward management structure with two co-chairmen and two co-chief executives from France and Germany. The twin-headed management structure had been widely blamed for slow decision-making and inefficiency which lead to significant financial losses and product delays.
The new deal, hammered out by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in July, gave each country a chance to have one top position in the concern.
France's Louis Gallois, took over on Monday as the sole chief executive of the EADS, while his former EADS co-chief, Germany's Tom Enders, took the reins at Airbus.
Gallois said he did not want to be the "French CEO of EADS, but the CEO of EADS."
Old challenges remain
It is yet to be seen, whether the new management structure will bring the much-needed improvements to the company.
A French trade unionist complained publicly last week about the new board of the group, which is now made up of six Germans, two French managers, one Spaniard and an English director.
Gallois said that the current arrangement, whereby the company has two headquarters, one in Paris and one in Munich was not ideal.
"One day we will have to agree on a single office," Gallois said.
"But the time is not ripe for that," he said, adding that he could imagine a transition to single headquarters taking place "in a few years."
Golden shares
Also on Monday, Rudiger Grube, who has become the sole chairman of EADS backed the idea of "golden shares" in the company, which would be held by chosen shareholders and which could outvote all other shares in certain specified circumstances, such as a hostile takeover.
"Taking into account EADS' contribution to the sovereignty and security of Europe, it's a legitimate question," Grube said in an interview with the French financial daily Les Echos.
"Many aerospace companies around the world have protection of this type."
He said a a working group set up by EADS shareholders would hand in its conclusions before the next shareholder meeting.
"We would like to make a proposal during the next AGM, in May 2008, at the latest," Grube said.
Earlier this month, a German government spokesperson confirmed that Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration was looking into ways to protect German interests in the European aerospace company and that it was calling for it to recieve a golden share.
Golden share have been used in the past by governments of EU member states to allow them to keep controlling voting rights in partially privatized companies, but are not viewed favorably by the European Commission.
EADS is controlled by a group of French and German shareholders which are either public or politically-linked private investors. Squabbles over control and influence have blighted its seven-year history.