Airbus Group SE said the UK Serious Fraud Office has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption relating to some of its third-party consultants.
The Toulouse, France-based planemaker said in a statement on Sunday that it is cooperating with investigators probing its civil aviation business. Airbus had flagged to UK regulators and the European Export Credit Agencies earlier this year “misstatements and omissions” involving the outside contractors in some export financing applications, which it found through an internal probe.
The credit agencies, including UK Export Finance, have suspended some of the backstop financing that Airbus uses to help sell commercial aircraft since the first revelations made four months ago. Airbus said in a July 27 statement that a process for re-establishing export credit “has been agreed and is ongoing.”
Photo: EPA
Until the financing is restored, Airbus and rival Boeing Co face the challenge of navigating an uncertain market with limited government assistance. Chicago-based Boeing has been unable to tap trade financing because a congressional impasse has left the US Export-Import bank with too few directors to approve deals.
Jefferies Equity Research estimates that export-credit agencies last year provided 7 percent of financing for Airbus plane deliveries, compared with 45 percent from leasing companies and 40 percent from airlines themselves.
The Airbus investigation adds to the scrutiny of the role played by cross-border intermediaries. Monaco-based Unaoil SAM, which served as a go-between for companies and officials in the Middle East, Africa and former Soviet countries, was searched by authorities earlier this year amid allegations of corruption.
“This will have some negative impact,” said Shukor Yusof, founder of aviation consulting firm Endau Analytics in Malaysia. “Third-party consultants or intermediaries have often caused worries. The business of aircraft sale is so intense and competitive that there are people trying many avenues.”
Airbus said in the July 27 filing that it is undertaking a sweeping review involving “legal, investigative, and forensic accounting” of consultants and other third parties used to support sales. The European planemaker said it is also using greater due diligence to screen potential contractors.
“The group cannot exclude that the comprehensive review and these enhancements of its controls and practices lead to additional commercial disputes or other consequences in the future,” the filing said.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS