a) Financial risk management

By the nature of the activities carried out, EADS is exposed to a variety of financial risks, especially foreign currency exchange rate risks and interest rate risks, as explained below. The management and limitation of the foreign exchange currency risks at EADS is generally carried out by a central treasury department at EADS Headquarters under policies approved by the Board of Directors. The identification, evaluation and hedging of the financial risks is in the responsibility of established treasury committees and the Group’s Divisions and Business Units.

Market risk

Currency risk – EADS manages a long-term hedge portfolio with a maturity of several years covering its net exposure to US Dollar sales, mainly from the activities of Airbus. This hedge portfolio covers the majority of the Group’s highly probable transactions.

Significant parts of EADS’ revenues are denominated in US Dollars, whereas a major portion of its costs is incurred in Euros and to a smaller extent in GBP. Consequently, to the extent that EADS does not use financial instruments to cover its current and future foreign currency exchange rate exposure, its profits are affected by changes in the Euro-US Dollar exchange rate. As the Group intends to generate profits only from its operations and not through speculation on foreign currency exchange rate movements, EADS uses hedging strategies to manage and minimise the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on these profits.

For financial reporting purposes, EADS mostly designates a portion of the total firm future cash flows as the hedged position to cover its expected foreign currency exposure. Therefore, as long as the actual gross foreign currency cash inflows (per month) exceed the portion designated as being hedged, a postponement or cancellation of sales transactions and corresponding cash inflows have no impact on the hedging relationship. As hedging instruments, EADS primarily uses foreign currency forwards.

EADS endeavours to hedge the majority of its exposure based on firm commitments and forecasted transactions. For products such as aircraft, EADS typically hedges forecasted sales in US Dollar. The hedged items are defined as first forecasted highly probable future cash inflows for a given month based upon final payments at delivery. The amount of the flows to be hedged can cover up to 100% of the equivalent of the net US Dollar exposure at inception. For EADS, a forecasted transaction is regarded as highly probable if the future delivery is included in the internally audited order book or is very likely to materialise in view of contractual evidence. The coverage ratio is adjusted to take into account macroeconomic movements affecting the spot rates and interest rates, as applicable. For the non-aircraft business EADS hedges in- and outflows in foreign currencies from sales and purchase contracts typically in low volumes.

The company also has foreign currency derivative instruments which are embedded in certain purchase and lease contracts denominated in a currency other than the functional currency of the significant parties to the contract, principally USD and GBP. Gains or losses relating to such embedded foreign currency derivatives are reported in other financial result. In addition EADS hedges currency risk arising from financial transactions in other currencies than EUR, such as funding transactions or securities.

Interest rate risk – The Group uses an asset-liability management approach with the objective to limit its interest rate risk. The Group undertakes to match the risk profile of its assets with a corresponding liability structure. The remaining net interest rate exposure is managed through several types of interest rate derivatives in order to minimise risks and financial impacts.

Hedging instruments that are specifically designated to debt instruments have at the maximum the same nominal amounts as well as the same maturity dates compared to the hedged item. Regarding cash, EADS is mainly investing in short-term instruments and/or instruments that are related to a floating interest index in order to further minimise any interest risk in its cash and securities portfolio.

Price Risk – The cash and cash equivalents and securities portfolio of the Group is invested mainly in non-speculative financial instruments, mostly highly liquid, such as certificates of deposits, overnight deposits, commercial papers and other money market instruments which generally are short term and subject to only an insignificant price risk. Therefore, the Group assesses its exposure towards price risk as minor.

Liquidity risk

The Group’s policy is to maintain sufficient cash and cash equivalents at any time to meet its present and future commitments. This is safeguarded by the reported total amount of the Group’s cash and cash equivalents, which is further supported by a substantial amount of unused committed credit facility (3.0 billion € as of December 31^st, 2006). On a daily basis, EADS invests any surplus cash mainly in non-speculative highly liquid financial instruments, such as certificates of deposits, overnight deposits, commercial papers and other money market instruments which are generally short term.

Credit risk

EADS is exposed to credit risk to the extent of non-performance by either its customers (e.g. airlines) or its counterparts with regard to financial instruments. However, the Group has policies in place to avoid concentrations of credit risk and to ensure that credit risk is limited.

Cash transactions and derivative counterparts are limited to high credit quality financial institutions. For such financial transactions EADS has set up a credit limit system to actively manage and limit its credit risk exposure. This limit system assigns maximum exposure lines to counterparts of financial transactions, based at a minimum on their credit ratings as published by Standard & Poors, Moody’s and Fitch IBCA. The respective limits are regularly monitored and updated.

Sales of products and services are made to customers after having conducted an appropriate internal credit risk assessment. In order to support product sales, primarily at Airbus and ATR, EADS may agree to participate in the financing of customers, on a case-by-case basis, directly or through guarantees provided to third parties. In determining the amount and terms of the financing transaction, Airbus and ATR take into account the airline’s credit rating as well as risk factors specific to the intended operating environment of the aircraft and its expected future value. Market yields and current banking practices also serve to benchmark the financing terms offered to customers, including price.

b) Notional amounts

The contract or notional amounts of derivative financial instruments shown below do not necessarily represent amounts exchanged by the parties and, thus, are not necessarily a measure for the exposure of the Group through its use of derivatives.

The notional amounts of foreign exchange derivative financial instruments are as follows, specified by year of expected maturity:

c) Fair value of financial instruments

The fair value of a financial instrument is the price at which one party would assume the rights and/or duties of another party. Fair values of financial instruments have been determined with reference to available market information at the balance sheet date and the valuation methodologies discussed below. Considering the variability of their value-determining factors and the volume of financial instruments, the fair values presented herein may not be indicative of the amounts that the Group could realise in a current market environment.

The following interest rate curves are used in the determination of the fair value in respect of the financial instruments as of December 31^st, 2006 and 2005: