Trichet could become new EADS chairman

The chairman of European aerospace giant EADS may stand down in March with former European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet as a possible replacement, Britain's Financial Times reported on Friday. Arnaud Lagardere, 51, may step down at an extraordinary meeting of the Airbus owner's shareholders who will be asked to approve a new board of directors, the newspaper said citing three people familiar with the situation. "However, these people added that no decisions had been made on the make-up of the new board, including its chairman," the Financial Times said. The current chairman is chief executive of French industrial and media group Lagardere, which is planning to sell its entire stake in EADS by the end of 2013. He became chairman in May but has repeatedly voiced his desire to leave EADS to focus Lagardere on its media and sports holdings. Lagardere's 7.5 percent stake in EADS, which builds rocket and missile launchers, satellites, fighter aircraft and helicopters as well as owning the plane maker Airbus, was cut back under a share restructuring plan announced Thursday. A deal to merge EADS with British defence group BAE Systems -- which would have created the world's biggest aerospace and defence company -- collapsed in October.