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“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 BritainÂ’s 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 weekÂ’s Sunday Times reported.
“We have done nothing wrong ... We don’t 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.”