Europe’s Manufacturing Juggernaut: Who Owns Airbus?

Airbus, one of commercial aviation’s two manufacturing giants, was founded in 1970 as a consortium of French and German aerospace companies. Later, the conglomerate would be joined by British and Spanish aerospace firms. The organization took to the skies by producing the Airbus A300, the conglomerate’s first product, which would enter service in 1974.

After over 50 years, the conglomerate’s ownership has broadly diversified from its original shareholders. Both state entities and governments maintain significant stakes, but independent investors primarily own the company. In this article, we’ll take a deep dive into the specifics behind Airbus’s complex ownership structure.

The formation of a conglomerate

The original company, Airbus GIE, was a conglomerate owned by various French and German shareholders and operated from 1970 until 2000. Afterward, in 2001, the company was formally organized under the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS), a consortium formed by the merger of French aerospace firm Aerospatiale Matra, German company DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, and Spanish manufacturer Construcciones Aeronautics SA.

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EADS, the new conglomerate, took control of an 80% stake in Airbus SAS, the newly organized joint-stock company. BAE Systems, a British multinational holding company, controlled the outstanding 20% of the company. Eventually, in 2006, EADS would acquire the remaining 20% of the company. Finally, by 2017, with Airbus SAS gaining increasing dominance over the entire Airbus Group SE organization, the whole company was reorganized and integrated under one company: Airbus SE, as it remains today. As a result, the company’s logo has also changed significantly over time.

Modern shareholders

Today, Airbus’s nearly 800 million shares are controlled by a variety of different players with different interests. Over a quarter of the company’s shares remain entirely government-controlled. The French government, via a holding company, SOGEPA, controls the largest of these shares at 10.9%. The German government, through the holding company GZBV, controls roughly a 10.8% share, and the Spanish government holds a 4.1% stake in the firm through the holding company SEPI.

Photo: Serge Goujon | Shutterstock

Additionally, 0.2% of the company’s shares are denoted as treasury shares. Thus, the remaining 74.1%, or nearly 590 million shares, are in free float and are controlled by outside third-party investors, most of whom are American.

The largest private shareholders are primarily large investment groups based in the US and some in London. The largest individual private shareholder is the US-based Capital Research and Management Group’s World Investors subdivision, a subsidiary of Los Angeles-headquartered investment firm Capital Group Companies. It controls a 5.61% stake in the company, or roughly 44 million shares. The organization’s Global Investors subdivision maintains a further 1.6% share of the company, or approximately 12.7 million shares.

Photo: EA Photography / Shutterstock

Other American asset management organizations maintain significant stakes, including the Vanguard Group, which controls 2.5% of the firm, and BlackRock Advisors, which owns roughly 1.2%. Investment firms Fidelity Management & Research, Invesco Advisers, and PRIMECAP Management all maintain smaller shares. Two British firms, TCI Fund Management and Capital International, each control significant shares as well, with 3% and 1.6%, respectively.

Source: MarketScreener