EADS bags $ 2.3bn Saudi contract
Reuters - 02 July, 2009
www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=477694&news_type=Economy&lang=en

European aerospace group EADS said yesterday it won a five-year contract to
help boost Saudi border security, which an official at a local partner said
is worth $ 2.3bn.

"It's about SR8.5bn ($ 2.27bn)," an official at Al Rasheed Trading &
Contracting, a Saudi company which will help EADS with construction works,
said, speaking on conditions of anonymity.

"It was signed last night," the official added.

A spokeswoman at EADS declined to give any indication on the amount of the
contract, but did say it would be the prime contractor on the largest ever
competed worldwide as a full solution.

The deal is part of plans by the world's biggest oil exporter to bolster
frontier surveillance with hundreds of extra radar facilities, coastal
detection centres, telecommunications networks and reconnaissance aircraft.

Saudi officials have warned about escalating violence and sectarian fighting
in Iraq and an insurgency against the US-backed government in Baghdad.

EADS shares extended their gains after the news, rising more than four
percent before standing 3.2 percent higher at 11.88 euros by 1514 GMT on the
Paris bourse.

France's Thales, Britain's BAE Systems Plc and US group Raytheon had also
vied for the contract.

In March, EADS and Al Rasheed announced a first deal to install a razor-wire
fence, thermal imaging and radar equipment along Saudi Arabia's 900km
frontier with northern neighbour Iraq. "This deal covers the rest of the
border. It involves much technology, radar, camera systems," the official
said.

More projects might come up such as a deal possibly worth up to SR1bn ($
266.7m) to secure a major border crossing point to neighbouring Oman, the
official said.