EADS Posted 11 Pct Rise In 2008 Sales - Report

EADS posted an 11 percent increase in full-year 2008 sales to around EUR43 billion euros (USD$54.36 billion), Financial Times Deutschland reported on Monday, citing an employee newsletter.

The only one of the European aerospace company's five divisions that failed to post higher revenues was the Airbus Military Aircraft division, which faces steep penalties on delayed delivery of its A400M military transport aircraft.

EADS is due to report annual results on Tuesday.

An EADS spokesman declined to comment on the contents of any staff publication, but said that nothing new had been communicated to staff beyond what chief executive Louis Gallois had already said in public.

On January 13, Gallois had said that EADS, which owns plane maker Airbus, generated around EUR42 billion of revenue in 2008, up from EUR39 billion a year earlier.

Gallois told employees that the company would concentrate on preserving its cash holdings in 2009, FT Deutschland said.

Due to the global economic crisis, the company would reach some of its 2020 targets later than planned. It still aimed to double annual sales to EUR80 billion and lower the proportion of sales generated by Airbus to 50 percent from two thirds.