Airbus Agrees to Settle Bribery Cases for About $3 Billion
- Settlements with France, U.S., U.K. may be cleared on Friday
- CEO Faury moves past major distraction to focus on Boeing
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Less than a year into the job running Airbus SE, Guillaume Faury is poised to accomplish a sweeping legal settlement of bribery allegations that dogged his predecessor for years and led to a mass management exodus.
While the price tag is high -- Airbus said Tuesday it will set aside 3.6 billion euros ($4 billion) for potential penalties -- the preliminary accord with authorities in the U.K., France and the U.S. lets Faury clear away a major distraction for himself as well as investors, who cheered the company announcement with the biggest stock gain in almost a month. Approval hearings are scheduled for Friday in courts in all three countries.