The crisis at EADS, the majority owner of Airbus, intensified on Thursday when its co-chairman and leading shareholder Arnaud Lagardere refused to stand down in the face of overwhelming pressure from the French state and DaimlerChrysler, the two firms' other two big investors, to quit.
Sources said the battle over a new executive structure at EADS made the position of Noel Forgeard, co-chief executive, even more untenable. The situation is likely to reach a head next week when Tom Enders, Forgeard's German counterpart, could be installed as sole CEO, the sources said. Daimler and the French government want the French state railways chief Louis Gallois to be sole chairman.
As the frantic maneuvering among French and German ministers and executives continued, EADS said it had launched legal action against "persons unknown" to find who had leaked the confidential minutes of a key audit committee meeting and accused the leaker of deliberately trying to inflame Franco-German tensions within the group.
The minutes, leaked to Le Monde, show that Lagardere, co- chairman Manfred Bischoff, Forgeard and Enders discussed changing EADS' profits guidance for this year as early as May 12, when they and other executives were told of delays to the A380 superjumbo, but decided to leave the guidance unchanged.
A month later they reversed that decision, warning of a potential 2 billion euros (US2.5 billion)earnings hit from A380 delays over the next four years, news that provoked a 26 percent slide in the market value of EADS on one day.
"Who benefited from the leak?" an insider commented on the leaked minutes which show Forgeard repeatedly asking fellow executives, including Gustav Humbert, Airbus's German CEO, whether the guidance could be maintained in the face of delays of up to five months. Enders stayed silent, the minutes said.
EADS said the suit, filed in Paris on Wednesday, sought damages and highlighted "theft, harboring and unauthorized disclosure of strictly internal and confidential draft documentation which is company property." It said it had also begun an internal inquiry.
Warning of possible further action, EADS, which owns 80 percent of Airbus, said it was "shocked to find a strictly internal and confidential draft document and company proprietary information in the press".
Frederic Lemaitre, business editor of Le Monde, refused to comment on the grounds of editorial independence.
Forgeard has come under pressure at private meetings with the three key shareholders, ministers and politicians to step down since the French financial regulator and EADS itself revealed that he and his family -- as well as other executives -- made millions of euros from exercising stock options in mid-March.
It is alleged that EADS and Airbus knew of technical problems on the A380 then -- and of pending moves in early April by Lagardere's media group and Daimler to each cut their shareholding by 7.5 percent.
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