After weeks of intensive negotiations France and Germany have reached agreement on a new shareholder structure for European aerospace group EADS that gives them equal weight, the company announced Wednesday. The agreement will see the German partner become a direct shareholder for the first time, acquiring a stake equivalent to that held by France.

The two governments will each control up to 12 per cent of the company, compared with around 4 per cent for Spain, EADS announced. Meanwhile, two other main shareholders that acted as government proxies, German carmaker Daimler and French media group Lagardere, will significantly reduce their stakes.

The deal reduces the proportion of national shareholdings from over 50 per cent to under 30 per cent. EADS said it would propose a share buy-back to buffet the share price. "This agreement aims at normalising and simplifying the governance of EADS while securing a shareholding structure that allows France, Germany and Spain to protect their legitimate strategic interests," the company said.

Relaxing the grip of governments has been a priority of EADS chief executive Tom Enders since the failure of merger talks between EADS and British defence contractor BAE Systems in October. The talks to create the world's biggest defence company collapsed over the failure of the German, French and British governments to agree on the terms of a tie-up.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2012