Airbus sees factory partnerships by year-end

Airbus hopes to complete partnership deals for a number of its factories by the end of the year, the planemaker said on Thursday.

The European company is selling in full or part six factories as part of its "Power8" four-year restructuring plan.

Three plants are slated for partnership deals under the plan, which is designed to compensate for a weak dollar and cash shortages caused by production and development delays.

Airbus is seeking partners to co-run Meaulte in France, a nose and cockpit sub-assembly plant, Nordenham in Germany, which makes fuselage shells, and wings factory Filton in Britain.

It is selling factories at St Nazaire in France (fuselage sections) and Varel (tools) and Laupheim (cabins) in Germany.

Airbus said on Thursday it was setting up project teams for each of the sites being considered for partnership or sale.

"Potential partners are then to confirm their interest, following which negotiations can start. These partnership agreements should be completed later in the year," Airbus said in a statement.

French firm Latecoere is interested in taking over Meaulte, which the country's recently elected president Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to keep open.

Airbus is meanwhile starting talks on the restructuring with national worker unions in the four European countries which host its factories -- Britain, France, Germany and Spain. [via]