The handover of Airbus’s parent company hit unexpected turbulence yesterday when its new chairman stayed away from his inauguration, along with six other board members.
Arnaud Lagardère, the 51-year-old French media mogul, had other matters to attend to, the apologetic outgoing chairman told shareholders at the annual meeting of EADS.
There was some grumbling at his absence and 11.6 per cent of shareholders voted against Mr Lagardère’s reappointment to the board.
The executives who did show up continued the awkward Franco-German choreography that has become the hallmark of the group’s management arrangements. The pattern was set in 2007 when Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, the leaders of Germany and France, announced that the chairman would be a representative of Daimler, the group’s main German shareholder, while the managing director would be French. After five years, the posts would switch nationality.
Thomas Enders, the German head of Airbus, yesterday became managing director of EADS, while the chairmanship was handed to Mr Lagardère as head of the principal private French shareholder, Groupe Lagardère, a position he inherited from his father.
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Mr Lagardere recently hit the headlines when his supermodel girlfriend Jade Foret, 21, fell pregnant and he announced they were to marry. On Tuesday, he and Ms Foret, below, attended the French Open tennis tournament.
“Mr Lagardère gave his excuses last night and said he had important matters to attend to. I am sorry he is not here,” Bodo Uebber, the outgoing German chairman, said in Amsterdam.
A spokesman for Mr Lagardère said: “Arnaud Lagardere is not at the general meeting as he still considers Bodo Uebber to be the chairman. Until he [Lagardère] has been named, it is normal that Mr Uebber should preside.”