PARIS (Reuters) - The board of Airbus parent firm EADS
(EAD.PA) will meet on Monday and could discuss the future of
French co-Chief Executive Noel Forgeard, French industry
Minister Francois Loos said on Monday, confirming media
reports.
"There is an EADS board meeting today. It's up to them to
discuss that issue," Loos told LCI television.
He was answering a question over whether Forgeard still had
some authority left in the crisis-stricken company, which was
hit by a steep fall in its shares last week after issuing a
profit warning.
Airbus, which is 80-percent owned by EADS, last week
slashed its forecast for deliveries of its flagship A380
superjumbo in 2007-09. The delay forced parent EADS to lower
its outlook on profits through 2010, and investors responded by
slicing a quarter off EADS's market value.
Forgeard is under pressure after acknowledging that the
company knew internally about a risk of delay in the
12-billion-euro ($15.20 billion) project as early as April,
though it did not make the problem public until last week.
Forgeard has also been criticized by shareholder activists
who have demanded a probe into his personal sale of EADS shares
in March, not long before he said there were indications of the
delay, which triggered a profit warning from EADS last week.
Delay in the project is being blamed on complicated wiring
needed to support in-flight entertainment and other systems on
the mammoth 850-seat planes.
Le Figaro newspaper reported on Monday that the EADS board
would meet in Munich on Monday morning to discuss what had
happened.
EADS shares in Paris were up 1.9 percent at 20.28 euros on
Monday morning.
