Germany to join France in credit offer to Airbus buyers

Jan 27, 2009, 10:17 GMT

Berlin - Germany joined France Tuesday in offering credit to buyers of new Airbus planes amid fears that the reluctance of world banks to lend may be undermining the plane manufacturer's sales.

Germany's federal bank, KfW, and export credit guarantees agency, Hermes, will enable customers to keep buying Airbus jets.

'The objective is to help reliable customers abroad to solve their financing problems, thus securing exports of our planes,' Peter Hintze, the government's aerospace coordinator, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa in Berlin.

Airbus belongs to EADS, a company dominated by Germany and France.

On Monday, Paris said it was launching a similar programme.

The business daily Les Echos said 5 billion euros (6.48 billion dollars) from France would help cash-strapped airlines honour their orders for Airbus aircraft and other EADS products.

According to Les Echos, the newly created Company for the Refinancement of the French Economy (SFEF) was to provide 7 billion euros to the banking system, obliging the banks to use the funds to support export contracts.

Of the total amount, 5 billion euros would be specifically earmarked to aid Airbus and EADS clients pay for their orders.

The same measure could be taken by other European nations with a stake in Airbus, such as Germany, Spain and Britain, the daily said.

In Berlin, Hintze said Germany would coordinate closely with the French to ensure customers did not cancel existing orders.

'We are consulting at the moment with the KfW and the banks on a market-oriented model,' said Hintze.

He said Germany would also expand its Hermes export-credits programme to benefit all German exporters, not just the aircraft industry.