Airbus Group (Toulouse, France) has agreed to sell its 26.8% stake in Finnish defense company Patria (Helsinki, Finland) as it reportedly streamlines its defense and space activities.
The Board of Patria fully endorses the transaction, whereby the Finnish government will buy Airbus’s shares. Thus, the government will wholly own Patria, but it said this was only a temporary situation and that it would seek a new partner early next year. Closing of the transaction is expected to be completed before the year-end.
In September, Airbus unveiled plans to sell half a dozen businesses with combined annual revenues of around 2 billion euros (US $2.5 billion), aiming to simplify its defense and space division to focus on warplanes, missiles, launchers and satellites.
“With the sale of our stake in Patria, we are implementing the conclusions drawn from our portfolio review earlier this year for the future set-up of our defense and security business. I thank the Finnish government for its cooperation and support in completing this transaction so smoothly,” said Marwan Lahoud, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer of Airbus Group. “I also wish to thank the management and employees of Patria for the good partnership we have had for many years. For sure, we will continue our good cooperation on several joint projects.”
Patria is the tier 1 supplier for the Airbus A380 composite wing spoilers, exclusively responsible for design and analysis, verification, manufacture and product support. It reports that each A380 wing has eight spoilers spanning up to 3m which are located in front of the inner and outer flaps. The composite spoilers are reportedly an essential contributor to lower operating costs through reduced fuel consumption thanks to their lower weight. Patria also contributes to several collaborative international aircraft programs using composite technology including the Airbus A400M and NH90 made by Airbus Helicopters (Marignane, France).