European drone maker Cassidian ends Brazil venture

Drone maker Cassidian, a unit of European aerospace and defence giant EADS, has decided to shelve its joint venture with Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht, an EADS spokesman told AFP on Tuesday. Confirming an article in the business daily Handelsblatt, the spokesman said the joint venture, set up in 2010, had been hoping to land a $6 billion (4.6-billion-euro) contract for a border security system, but the contract had been awarded to rival Embraer. "A joint venture without any orders is an empty shell," the spokesman said. Cassidian would nevertheless remain present in Brazil, which it regards as an "important market of the future," he said. The country will host the 2014 soccer World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympics, which will require colossal investments in infrastructure and security. Cassidian specialises in security systems and solutions and has been seeking to boost its activities in emerging economies to offset falling defence investment in Europe.