Airbus CFO says EU antitrust talks on satellite merger are constructive but not concluded

By Florence Loeve, Gianluca Lo Nostro and Joanna Plucinska

PARIS, Oct 28 - Airbus' CFO on Wednesday said that discussions with European antitrust authorities on a planned merger of the satellite businesses of the European aerospace group with Italy's Leonardo and France's Thales ones were constructive but had not yet been concluded.

Airbus, Italy's Leonardo and France's Thales announced plans in 2025 to combine their satellite manufacturing activities into a standalone company. The aerospace and defense groups want to create a European champion able to compete with Elon Musk's Space X and Chinese rivals.

The project aims at creating the new joint company at the end of 2027, but it needs to get a greenlight from the EU's competition authority.

Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer, speaking during a call with analysts, said the company still aimed to sign a definitive agreement in 2026 to then close the transaction in 2027, though he said that the group did not fully control the timing due to the antitrust process.

"Not everything is fully under our control, but we remain positive", he said.

(Reporting by Florence Loève, Gianluca Lo Nostro)