Airbus is planning to offer 10% of its stake in French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation to institutional investors.

The European aircraft maker holds 46.3% stake in Dassault and is also considering participation in its planned buy-back programme. The deals could be worth around €2bn.

Airbus strategy head Marwan Lahoud was quoted by Bloomberg as saying: "Our preferred route is to place some of the shares on the market and combine that with Dassault buying some of the shares.

"Our preferred route is to place some of the shares on the market and combine that with Dassault buying some of the shares."

"Dassault’s a well-managed company and should be interesting to institutional investors who like corporate jets."

Airbus plans to initially sell 10% of its holding; if successful it seeks to reduce its shareholding further.

Airbus corporate communications head Rainer Ohler told Reuters: "That provides an obvious route for a partial exit.

"We believe, however, that longer-term value objectives might be better served through combining a sale to Dassault with the placing of a meaningful amount of shares in the market, enough for there to be much improved liquidity, and so we continue to review our options in this respect."

Airbus has earlier received expressions of interest from several investors to acquire its holding in Dassault, Ohler added.

Dassault Aviation, which has a market value of around €10bn, received shareholders’ approval last month to proceed with its plans to buy back as much as 10% of its stock.

Last year, hedge funds manager TCI has suggested Airbus to sell its stake in Dassault terming it a poor use of capital.

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