India selects Dassault's Rafale as next generation interceptor

31st Jan 2012 17:45

The Indian government has this afternoon announced the selection of Dassault Aviation's Rafale jet-fighter as its next generation combat aircraft, according to a statement released by Dassault. The French outfit, which counts EADS as one of its major shareholders, thus seems to have beat the Eurofighter consortium's 'Typhoon', of which BAE Systems is a member.Writing in the weeks before the announcement some analysts had highlighted that the contract was only worth up to £6.4bn, so that in reality it would only increase the company´s earnings per share by 1% to 2%. Nonetheless, it was thought that it might boost sentiment in shares of the firm. The company's shares have closed 1.0% lower today, at 307.8p. AB