EADS denies reports that India scrapped Eurocopter tender

Dec 18, 2007, 10:55 GMT

New Delhi - Aerospace consortium European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) said Tuesday it had received no official statement from the Indian government to scrap a near-finalized deal for 197 Eurocopters.

'From our side the deal is on,' Norbert Bucrot, senior vice-president of Eurocopter, Asia Pacific, said at a press briefing in the Indian capital. 'We have not been informed of any cancellation.'

A spokesman for India's Defence Ministry said earlier this month that the government had decided to cancel the request for proposals for the helicopters from Eurocopter, a division of EADS, due to a deviation from approved parameters. He said a fresh tender would be issued soon.

The proposed deal is estimated to be worth 600 million dollars.

Bucrot said Eurocopter representatives had met with defence officials 'last week' to discuss the deal. 'We are negotiating,' he said.

EADS officials showed detailed images of the helicopters sent for trials in India, and said the AS350 B3 civilian model presented by Eurocopter was the same as AS550 C3 military version with only minor variations.

One of the reasons raised in the Indian media for scrapping the deal during an advanced stage of negotiations was that Eurocopter sent civilian variations of the aircrafts for trial.

Asked about speculation that the deal may have been scrapped due to involvement of middlemen - proscribed under India's defence procurement procedures of 2006 - Bucrot said it was not relevant because the procedures were not in place when negotiations began.

A statement issued by Paris-based Eurocopter earlier said the company had signed and abided by a pre-integrity pact requested by India's Ministry of Defence and by strict French and European regulations.

It identified retired lieutenant general SJS Saighal as chairman of Global Vectra Helicorp, a private helicopter company in India, with which Eurocopter had a distribution and maintenance agreement for civilian commercial helicopters.

'Vectra is purely involved in the field of civil helicopters and Eurocopter strongly denies any allegations regarding involvement in governmental contracts,' the statement said.