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Dubai Aerospace Interested in Buying Airbus Factories: CEO | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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FRANKFURT (AFP) -Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, a new group based in Dubai, is interested in buying some of the plants European aerospace group Airbus plans to divest, the group’s chief executive said Friday.

In an interview with German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung, chief executive Bob Johnson said the Airbus plants were “interesting for us” and that the group wanted to “buy into and develop itself” in production.

Under a radical restructuring plan announced earlier this year, Airbus said it would sell outright or spin off six factories in France, Germany and Britain, with a seventh likely to be added to the list.

The group plans to announce the fate of the factories at the end of next month, with four in Germany, two in France and one in Britain currently facing a future under unknown ownership.

Dubai Aerospace Enterprise was founded last year and is jointly owned by the state and investment companies based in Dubai.

Over the coming years, it plans to invest about 15 billion dollars (11 billion euros) to establish its aircraft business, the newspaper said.

“We want to do everything related to aviation,” said Johnson in the interview.

The group is bidding for up to 60 percent of the company that runs Auckland International Airport, New Zealand’s largest air hub, and is also interested in London’s Gatwick airport.

In July this year, the state of Dubai bought a 3.12-percent stake in Airbus parent company EADS, representing an investment of about 600 million euros.

The acquisition by Dubai International Capital’s Global Strategic Equities Fund (GSEF) made it “one of the largest institutional shareholders in the company,” it said at the time.