EADS N.V. - Success of EADS Employee Share programme continues

The EADS Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP) 2005 has been a major success for the company. In total nearly two million employee shares were subscribed by nearly 11,000 participants who invested € 36.47 million. This represents an increase for the 2004 ESOP and is the highest investment of EADS employees in ESOP since its creation in 2000. Despite a relatively short period of just over seven months since the last offering and a slight increase in price the subscription rate with 95.5 percent was close to target.

Jussi Itavuori, Head of the EADS Human Resources, commented: “I’m more than satisfied with the results of ESOP 2005. The large number of participants in ESOP 2005 shows clearly the great confidence of our employees in our company. And I think this confidence is absolutely justified. We had very strong figures in the first quarter and we trust that this trend will continue also our new top management is ready and willing to open the next chapter in the EADS success story.”

This year ESOP’s shares were offered to employees in 14 countries, including Poland for the first time. The offer consisted in a total of about 2 million newly issued shares corresponding to some 0.25 percent of the total issued share capital of EADS. EADS employees were able to purchase shares from 6th to 17th June at a discounted price calculated on the last trading day preceding the offer. The maximum individual subscription was 500 shares. After completion of the capital increase, about 3.3 percent of EADS shares are in the hands of the EADS employees. ESOP 2005 was authorized by the EADS Board of Directors and the Annual General Meeting.

For further details, including the different operating procedures duly validated by the relevant capital markets, see www.eads.net.

EADS is a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2004, EADS generated revenues of € 31.8 billion and employed a workforce of about 110,000. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world's largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and the joint venture MBDA, the international leader in missile systems. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport aircraft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo.