Article

2006-11-28 Britain

Follow-up.

LONDON - Saudi Arabia has suspended negotiations with Britain over the its purchase of 72 new Eurofighter aircraft from British firm BAE Systems because of a row over an investigation into an alleged slush fund, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

We cannot speak on behalf of the two governments. But I do know we are not currently moving forward on finalising the Typhoon contract, Mike Turner, chief executive of BAE Systems, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The Eurofighter deal is initially for 10 billion pounds (19.4 billion dollars, 14.8 billion euros), but the value of the agreement could rise to as much as 40 billion pounds for BAE through maintenance and upgrades.
And the Brits were counting on contracts like these to keep the per-copy cost of the plane down.
The row has flared over a three-year investigation by Britains Serious Fraud Office (SFO) into claims that BAE established a 60-million pound slush fund for some members of the Saudi royal family, which allegedly provided perks including luxury cars to ensure that they kept doing business with BAE. BAE Systems has sealed a series of lucrative deals with Saudi Arabia since 1985.

Saudi Arabia threatened to suspend diplomatic links with Britain over the affair after SFO lawyers persuaded a Swiss magistrate to force disclosure of details about confidential Swiss bank accounts, this weeks Sunday Times reported.

We have done nothing wrong ... We dont want to interfere with the judicial process, and politicians clearly cannot do that, but we do want to see a resolution of the SFO investigation, Turner said. It is damaging for our business.

Posted by Steve White 2006-11-28 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11171 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 ..If I were Boeing I'd start dropping hints to the Saudi military attache about really good deals on F-18Es...

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2006-11-28 08:58|| 2006-11-28 08:58|| Front Page Top

#2 Sell 'em the secret of the S.A.G.E.

Posted by Shipman 2006-11-28 12:10|| 2006-11-28 12:10|| Front Page Top

#3 No need for the US to screw the Brits. France will attempt to shoehorn their way in with the Rafale.

Posted by ed 2006-11-28 12:44|| 2006-11-28 12:44|| Front Page Top

#4 I personally wouldn't sell the Saudis the used contents of my cat's litter box, but that's just me. Let the Saudis buy Russian crap and find themselves totally screwed in all future negotiations.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2006-11-28 14:07|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2006-11-28 14:07|| Front Page Top

#5 Somehow I think that if this deal gets stymied, BAE will be in the hurt locker; remember thay just sunk a bunch of money into EADS, the same EADS that runs Airbus.....

Posted by USN, ret. 2006-11-28 15:57|| 2006-11-28 15:57|| Front Page Top

#6 Let the Saudis buy from the French. They will never know true pain until they see the bill to maintain and operate French aircraft and avionics. I remember a general from the Hellenic Air Force bitterly complaining that it cost Greece more to operate one squadron of Super Entendards than four squadrons of A-7s.

Posted by RWV 2006-11-28 16:51|| 2006-11-28 16:51|| Front Page Top

#7 BAE sold it's 20% stake in Airbus to EADS last month so they can focus on their US defense business.

Posted by Classical_Liberal 2006-11-28 20:16|| 2006-11-28 20:16|| Front Page Top

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