EADS head wants to abolish stock options

With his company suspected of massive insider trading, EADS head Louis Gallois was quoted Tuesday as saying he would propose to his board of directors to abolish the practice of using stock options to pay its executives. "I consider giving stock options to executives a debatable system which resembles a lottery," Gallois said in an interview posted on the website of the daily Le Monde. "I will propose to the board of directors that it be completely done away with. I think we must replace it with a more transparent type of remuneration." Earlier this month, the watchdog Financial Markets Authority (AMF) issued a preliminary report suggesting that there was massive insider trading at EADS, the parent company of aircraft manufacturer Airbus, related to problems with the production of the Airbus A380 superjumbo. The daily Le Figaro reported last week that the AMF was investigating share sales by 21 top EADS managers between November 2005 and March 2006, just before the problems with the aircraft were made public and the EADS share price plunged in June 2006. In addition, major EADS shareholders Lagardere SCA of France and the German company DaimlerChrysler AG said in March 2006 they would reduce their shares in the company. dpa sm gma