ThyssenKrupp To Start Talks With Airbus Group Over Atlas Elektronik

   By Hendrik Varnholt and Ulrike Dauer 
 

FRANKFURT--ThyssenKrupp AG (TYEKY, TKA.XE) said on Tuesday it will start talks with Airbus Group (EADSY), which plans to sell its 49% stake in Atlas Elektronik as part of a streamlining strategy.

The German steelmaker already holds a majority stake in Atlas Elektronik, a marine electronics and systems business that makes integrated sonar systems for submarines and torpedoes. The Bremen-based company was a subsidiary of BAE Systems until 2005 when it was sold to ThyssenKrupp and EADS.

ThyssenKrupp Chief Executive Heinrich Hiesinger said the company would initiate talks with Airbus over the stake sale, but declined to comment on whether it would buy Airbus' stake in Atlas.

Earlier in the day, Airbus' Defence and Space unit said it intends to sell its communications business, some subsidiaries and stakes in other companies like Fairchild Controls, Rostock System-Technik, AvDef, ESG and Atlas Elektronik, to streamline its operations and focus on its space and defense activities.

Airbus' defence and space unit, last year, reviewed its strategy and identified space, missiles and related systems and services as its core business, where it plans to invest further.

-Write to Hendrik Varnholt at [e-mail] and Ulrike Dauer at [e-mail]

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