PARIS, April 25 (Reuters) - Europe's largest defence electronics company, Thales, maintained its forecasts for 2013 after seeing a 3 percent rise in first-quarter sales blurred by a sharp drop in orders compared with a strong start to 2012.

Board of aerospace and defence group also approves plans for share buyback worth up to €3.8bn following overhaul to structure and corporate governance

LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Britain's defence ministryawarded a 226 million pound ($340 million) contract to Europeanaerospace firms Thales and Airbus on Mondayto build a training centre for the A400M Atlas militarytransport plane.

GS Yuasa Corp , the Japanese maker of lithium-ion battery cells used in Boeing Co's787 Dreamliner, said it is working closely with the U.S. company, lead battery contractor Thales SAof France and regulators to get the 787 back into the air.

TOKYO (Reuters) - GS Yuasa Corp , the Japanese maker of lithium-ion battery cells used in Boeing Co's787 Dreamliner, said it is working closely with the U.S. company, lead battery contractor Thales SAof France and regulators to get the 787 back into

TOKYO, March 4 (Reuters) - GS Yuasa Corp, theJapanese maker of lithium-ion battery cells used in Boeing Co's 787 Dreamliner, said it is working closely with the U.S.company, lead battery contractor Thales SA of Franceand regulators to get the 787 bac

Defence electronics group’s shares are up 12% after profits beat expectations, while new chief executive Jean-Bernard Lévy unveils a strategic review

PARIS, March 1 (Reuters) - Thales SA : * Shares rise 12 percent after results

* 2012 sales rise 9 pct to 14.2 bln vs poll avg 13.82 bln

Airbus parent EADSconfirmed on Wednesday it had proposed former Thales Chief Executive Denis Ranque as its next chairman under a new shareholder structure.

PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus parent EADSconfirmed on Wednesday it had proposed former Thales Chief Executive Denis Ranque as its next chairman under a new shareholder structure.

PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Airbus parent EADS confirmed on Wednesday it had proposed former Thales ChiefExecutive Denis Ranque as its next chairman under a newshareholder structure.

Airbus parent EADSpaved the way to getting its first independent chairman on Tuesday, as it put finishing touches to proposals for a new board to be led by the former head of French defence group Thales, people familiar with the matter said.

PARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters) - European aerospace and defencegroup EADS unveiled a list of nominations to its boardof directors on Tuesday that includes former head of Thales Denis Ranque.

PARIS (Reuters) - Airbus parent EADSpaved the way to getting its first independent chairman on Tuesday, as it put finishing touches to proposals for a new board to be led by the former head of French defence group Thales, people familiar with the mat

* Former Thales chief Denis Ranque emerges as chairman pick

* Ranque resisted EADS takeover attempts while Thales CEO

Nomination committee is expected to recommend that Denis Ranque succeed Arnaud Lagardère, in what will be seen as effort to limit political meddling

PARIS, Feb 1 (Reuters) - Thales' new chiefexecutive, Jean-Bernard Levy, is set to announce areorganisation of the French defence electronics group, businessdaily Les Echos reported on Friday.

AMSTERDAM, Jan 23 (Reuters) - French companies, includingpart state-owned EDF, GDF Suez and Thales, are increasingly usingDutch holdings to cut theirtax bills, Dutch paper Het Financieele Dagblad reported, citingits own research.

* Luc Vigneron resigns after loses top shareholders' support

PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - French defence company Thales officially named the former head of media and telecomsgroup Vivendi, Jean-Bernard Levy, as its new chiefexecutive on Thursday.

Former Vivendi chief set to lead defence electronics manufacturer in controversial appointment of man with limited experience of the industry

ISTRES, France (Reuters) - French defense electronics group Thales will name former Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy as its new chief executive on Thursday, the head of key shareholder Dassault Aviation said.

* Levy left Vivendi in June in strategy dispute (Adds details, background)

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

PARIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Thales, Europe's leadingdefence electronics group, said on Thursday it will pay aninterim dividend of 0.25 euros per share for financial year2012.

Given our base-line assumption that cash dividends will stay at about EUR150 million-EUR200million, including an interim dividend in 2012, we expect discretionary cash flows (FOCF lessdividends) to be about EUR0.2 billion-EUR0.3 billion over our fore

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

Defence engineering firm Thales is cutting 50 jobs from its operations in Northern Ireland, the BBC learns.

PARIS, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Thales, Europe's leadingdefence electronics company, posted an 8 percent rise innine-month sales and a jump in new orders on Thursday, boostedby the acquisition of a larger stake in French shipyard DCNS,and confirmed full-ye

MINYANVILLE ORIGINAL Thales of Miletus is one of the earliest Greek philosophers about whom we have some reliable information. About 2 600 years ago he investigated nearly every branch of knowledge proposing non-magical explanations expressed in stra

(The following statement was released by the rating agency)

PARIS, July 25 (Reuters) - Europe's largest defenceelectronics firm Thales posted higher than expectedfirst-half earnings as gains incommercial avionics and spacecompensated for sharp defence cuts, and reaffirmed its outlookfor the year.

PARIS, June 21 (Reuters) - French defence and aerospacegroup Thales said it had won a contract to supplyFrance's armed forces with next-generation radios, the firsttranche of which was worth 263 million euros ($331.54 million).

PARIS, May 10 (Reuters) - France's Thales onThursday reported first-quarter revenue up 7 percent, helped bythe inclusion of part of the sales of naval shipbuilder DCNS inits results even as demand slipped in core defence and securitymarkets.

* Licenses involving Thales Alenia Space held up in Congress

* Sees book-to-bill ratio slightly below 1 in 2012 (Adds earnings details, CEO comment)

* Sees EBIT margin at 5 pct in 2011, 6 pct in 2012 (Adds detail from statement, background)

PARIS, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Europe's largest defenceelectronics group, Thales, stuck to its margin goalsfor last year and 2012 after posting roughly flat order intakeand revenue for 2011.

PARIS, Jan 9 (Reuters) - French aerospace groupThales' planned stake in Nexter will amount to 10 to20 percent of the state-owned arms firm, French Defence MinisterGerard Longuet said at a media event on Monday.

PARIS, Dec 23 (Reuters) - Thales bought a 10 percentstake in naval shipbuilder DCNS from the French state, raisingits holding to 35 percent, the company said on Friday. (Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Erica Billingham)

The French manufacturers are to bring together their military optronics businesses after failing to reach agreement on talks to swap assets

PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Thales and Safran have signed a provisionaldeal to set up a jointventure in optronics, the two French state-controlled aerospacegroups said on Tuesday, ditching earlier attempts to agree amore ambitious asset swap urged on t

PARIS, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Thales and Safran have signed a provisionaldeal to set up a jointventure in optronics, the two French state-controlled aerospacegroups said on Tuesday, ditching earlier attempts to agree amore ambitious asset swap urged on t

* Enters talks for minority Nexter stake in munitions swap

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - French defence companyThales announced plans on Thursday to buy stakes intwo state arms firms as it boosts its role in naval shipbuildingwhile surrendering a direct role in the manufacture ofammunitions.

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - French defence group Thales may transfer its TDA mortars and munitions unit toterrestrial arms and ammunition maker Nexter in exchange for asmall minority stake in the state-owned group, two sourcesfamiliar with the matter s