(updates with Enders comment on timing of Forgeard options sale)
PARIS (AFX) - EADS will today holds its first board meeting since the group's stock plunged on last week's profit warning, amid simmering boardroom tensions and hotly-denied rumours of insider dealing, newspapers reported.
Without naming its source, Les Echos said radical decisions were unlikely pending an internal group investigation of the incident.
The profit warning was due to a fresh, and more serious, delay in the delivery schedule of the forthcoming A380 superjumbo built by the company's Airbus unit.
EADS chief executive Noel Forgeard has had to defend himself from accusations - which he strongly denies - that he knew about the latest problems associated with the plane's development before he sold 2.5 mln eur in stock options in March.
According to Les Echos, which did not name its source, the group was not alerted to a risk of slippage of deliveries until April 15 and this was confirmed by an external audit carried out by McKinsey.
The paper claimed the scandal will prompt the group to rethink its dual-CEO structure and may encourage principal German shareholder DaimlerChrysler AG to dispose of its remaining 22.4 pct stake.
It added that regional German banks might be willing to acquire the shares.
Forgeard's German co-CEO, Tom Enders, said at the weekend that he would not have sold any of his shares in the company in March, as Forgeard did.
Enders remained silent as a quarter was wiped off the value of EADS shares last week when news of the new A380 problems emerged.
But yesterday, though not explicitly criticising Forgeard, Enders said: 'Of course it would have been lucrative to exercise the options in March, given EADS' high share price.
'But I decided it wouldn't be opportune to do so,' the Guardian reported him as saying. paris@afxnews.com mrg/jms/jms COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2005. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited
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