( AFP ) - Russian bank VTB is to go ahead with selling its five-percent stake in EADS, probably by year's end, Russian news agencies quoted VTB chief executive Andrei Kostin as saying on Saturday.
Russia's United Aircraft Corp (UAC) is expected to be the final purchaser via an intermediary, RIA Novosti quoted Kostin as saying at a news conference in ex-Soviet Armenia.
He said the decision to sell the stake "has been taken in principle."
"There's more than a 50 percent chance we'll complete the deal this year," he said.
"Ultimately the stake could be transferred to UAC" via Russia's VEB bank (Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Activity), he said.
The European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company itself owns a 10-percent stake in Russian fighter jet maker Irkut , alongside UAC and other Russian aerospace companies. The chief executive of UAC has also said he would like a "strategic partnership" with EADS.
Most of EADS is controlled by French and German interests, both public and private, while the Spanish state holding group SEPI also owns 5.47 percent of its equity.