The Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations, known as the “armed wing of the French treasury”, is sounding out other investors who bought shares in EADS just weeks before the Franco-German aerospace group announced further delays in its flagship jumbo A380 project.

The French state financial institution was one of several investors to agree at the beginning of April to acquire shares at a set price from EADS’s two biggest shareholders – Lagardère and DaimlerChrysler. Last week the shares collapsed after EADS issued a shock profit warning. The group has subsequently admitted that problems first emerged in its Airbus subsidiary in mid-April.