BAE与EADS联姻告吹

Attempts to create a European giant to rival Boeingof the US collapsed yesterday, amid investor anger at the handling of a multibillion-euro deal that would have transformed the world’s defence and aerospace industry.

缔造一家可媲美美国波音(Boeing)的欧洲巨头的计划昨日落空。投资者对这笔本将改变全球防务和航空航天业格局的巨额交易的处理感到愤怒。

Government officials in London, Paris and Berlin blamed each other for not backing the €36bn tie-up between BAE Systems, the UK’s defence champion, and EADS, Europe’s biggest civil aerospace group, while investors accused BAE of having a muddled strategy that threatened shareholder value.

伦敦、巴黎和柏林的政府官员互相指责对方不支持英国防务巨头BAE系统公司(BAE Systems)与欧洲最大民用航空航天集团——欧洲航空防务及航天集团(EADS)360亿欧元的合并，而投资者批评BAE系统公司战略混乱，危及股东价值。

There were suggestions that Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, vetoed the deal on Tuesday morning.

有一些说法称，德国总理安格拉·默克尔(Angela Merkel)周二上午否决了这笔交易。

But one senior Berlin official said that London and Paris had never resolved a dispute over what the size of the French state shareholding of the enlarged company should be.

但一位德国高级官员表示，英国和法国从未解决有关法国政府在合并后公司的持股比例的分歧。

A senior government official told the Financial Times that Ms Merkel telephoned Fran ois Hollande, France’s president, demanding a “quick decision by the governments either to extend talks or pull the plug on the deal. Another person close to the negotiations said that the chancellor bluntly told Mr Hollande that the deal was off.

一位政府高官告诉英国《金融时报》，默克尔致电法国总统弗朗索瓦·奥朗德(Fran ois Hollande)，要求法国政府做出“快速决定，要么延长谈判，要么终止交易。另一位知情人士表示，默克尔直截了当地告诉奥朗德交易已被取消。

Senior German officials admitted that the German government had severe reservations about its viability and strategic sense. “Clearly we were concerned about Germany being marginalised in the deal, according to one official close to the talks. “It was not clear this was a good merger overall.

德国高官承认，德国政府对这笔交易的可行性和战略意义持严重保留态度。“显然，我们对德国在这笔交易中被边缘化感到担忧，一位了解谈判内容的官员表示，“不清楚这是否在总体上是一笔不错的合并交易。