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Sarkozy to divest French ownership of EADS

Emirates Airlines A380, coming to an airport near you...

It looks like its a "Whoa Nellie!" situation after all.

From the UK Guardian:

"Mr Sarkozy has already met the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to discuss the future of EADS. "I found in the German chancellor someone who has perfectly understood that we need to act fast. What I want is that it works," Mr Sarkozy said. The speed with which the new president has addressed the issue reflects the high profile EADS and Airbus have in France."

Airbus and its parent company EADS have identified as one of the key problems in the structure of the company the dual board, dual management structure where decisions are shared between French interests and German interests. You should also understand that President Sarkozy went to Chancellor Merkel only two days after taking office. The topic of conversation appears to have centered around the issue of EADS and it also appears that the conversation was to find out if there would be any problem in France "cashing in its chips".

From what I've been able to glean from multiple sources it appears very likely that France will divest itself from state ownership of EADS. This follows the UK divestiture last year. This is harsh medicine for European socialism, but it will in the end be very good for EADS.

That leaves one question to be answered, who would purchase the shares once divestiture begins to occur? Rest assured, there is already an interested party waiting in the wings, and thanks in no small part to the short sighted, pig ignorance on the part of American Xenophobes this have found it necessary to spend their capital in some place other than the United States.

And who is this other party?

Why of course, its Dubai!

You'll remember Dubai, as the owners of "Dubai Ports World" and all the endless controversy that their appearance on the world stage caused when they tied to buy a UK based port management company last year. Dubai is the group that every tin hatted crackpot was so absolutely sure was going to "work with terror groups to sneak a bomb into the United States because they would control security at ports", which was never the case but dont let a few facts get in the way of a good story, right?

It now appears vey likely that not only will Dubai be buying large numbers of aircraft from a direct competitor of Boeing, but they will also be buying into the manufacturing process as well. Gee that worked out swell, didnt it!

Now in retrospect doesnt it seem silly to have worried about "The Ports Deal" in light of the new reality? European manufacturing is now tied to a vast sea of available Arab capital. That my friends is a much bigger and very real threat to this country than the cartoon "boogeyman" threat presented by the possibilities of Dubai Ports World moving shipping containers at our ports.

Folks you have to understand that in the world there are allies and investors and there are also enemies and competitors. There are times when you have to set your prejudices aside and just get on with business. Frankly, I would rather have Dubai investing their money here than in Europe. DeGaulle once said that "France has no friends, only interests" and he was right. Countries have no friends, they have interests. Dubai and France are both looking after theirs, but we foolishly helped them work together to do it.

My grandfather spent three years as a "guest of the emperor of Japan", and yet his car was a small Mitsubishi Truck. Mitsubishi was the manufacturer of the wartime "Zero" aircraft. When I asked him about why he would make this choice, he said "Well, we won the war, and they make damn good cars so why the hell not!"

He was in his own small way, simply looking after his interests.

Posted @ May 19, 2007 09:41 AM | Current Affairs