Airbus nosedives on report that US has also launched bribery probe
Britain and France are already investigating the planemaker over the alleged use of middlemen in securing sales
Airbus SE shares slumped following a French 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 dropped as much as 9.6%, the biggest intraday loss in two and a half years, after Le Monde reported on Thursday that Airbus was informed at the end of the summer about the move by US authorities. Without saying where it obtained the information, the newspaper also said the planemaker could face total fines of several billion dollars from the probes. “Airbus is co-operating with the US authorities in close co-ordination” with investigators in the UK and France, the company said in a statement, adding it has previously disclosed its “engagement” with the US to provide information related to the European probes. Airbus said in February that US agencies had asked it for information to assess whether any of the misconduct alleged in the European probes could fall within US ju...
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