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Bloomberg
Airbus SE shares tumbled following a report that the US Department of Justice has officially started an investigation into the European planemaker in parallel with British and French bribery probes.
The stock fell 4.4 percent, the biggest drop in 2 1/2 years. Le Monde reported that Airbus was informed at the end of the summer about the move by US authorities. The newspaper added that the company could face fines of several billion dollars from the probes.
“Airbus is cooperating with the US authorities in close coordination†with investigators in the UK and France, the company said in a statement.
The Department of Justice is looking into the company, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, asking not to be identified. Airbus had disclosed in February that US agencies asked it for information to assess whether any of the misconduct alleged in the European probes could fall within US jurisdiction.
The Toulouse, France-based industrial giant has been dogged by a series of investigations concerning the use of middlemen in securing plane sales, with CEO Tom Enders announcing that he wouldn’t seek another term amid the continuing uncertainty.
Enders, who has been trying to convince investigators in France and the UK that Airbus is serious about reining in
improprieties, has warned that the probes may lead to “significant penalties.†He will be replaced by Guillaume Faury in April. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office and France’s Parquet National Financier have been investigating possible bribery in Airbus’s passenger jet business, while Airbus agreed to pay $93 million to settle a German bribery investigation into fighter-jet sales dating to 2002.