Thales Group

Thales Group is a French multinational company that designs and builds electrical systems and provides services for the aerospace, defence, transportation and security markets. The headquarters are in Neuilly-sur-Seine (in the suburbs of Paris), and its stock is listed on the Euronext Paris.

The company changed its name to Thales from Thomson-CSF in December 2000 shortly after the £1,300 million acquisition of Racal Electronics plc, a UK defence electronics group. It is partially state-owned by the French State, and has operations in more than 50 countries. It has 68,000 employees and generated €13.03 billion in revenues in 2011. The Group is ranked as the 475th largest company by Fortune 500 Global, is the 11th largest defence contractor in the world and 60% of its total sales are military sales.

The CEO is Jean-Bernard Lévy since December 2012.

Name
The Thales Group is named after the Greek philosopher Thales. The name is pronounced, reflecting the French language pronunciation of the philosopher's name.

History
Thales' predecessor, Thomson-CSF, evolved from Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston (CFTH), which was established in 1893. However Thomson-CSF itself was established in 1968 when Thomson-Brandt (the renamed CFTH) merged its electronics arm with that of Compagnie Générale de Télégraphie Sans Fil (CSF).

Thales formed a joint venture with Raytheon in June, 2001 to combine their radar and communications systems divisions. Named ThalesRaytheonSystems, the firm is 50% owned by both parent companies.

In 2002 Thales set up the joint venture company Armaris with the French shipbuilder DCN to offer a total "bottom up" shipbuilding capability.

In 2002, Thales Broadcast Multimedia, a former subsidiary of Thales, provided China with standard short-wave radio-broadcasting equipment designed for general public radio-broadcasting. Although the contract was not at all for the purpose of jamming foreign radio stations broadcasting to China, it now appears that this is what the ALLISS antennas are being used for.

In 2003 Thales UK's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF) and the company now participates in an alliance company with BAE Systems and the UK Ministry of Defence. This Thales design may form the basis of the Future French aircraft carrier which the company has agreed to build with DCN.

In 2006 Thales acquired Australian Defence Industries, a major manufacturer of military equipment such as smokeless gunpowder and the Bushmaster IMV.

Alcatel deal
In April, 2006, Thales announced it would be acquiring Alcatel's space business (67% of Alcatel Alenia Space and 33% of Telespazio), and Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division in a deal which also raised Alcatel's ownership of Thales to 21.66 percent. The French government would also decrease its ownership in Thales to 27.1 percent from 31.3 percent as part of the acquisition. According to an Alcatel Press Room Web page of April 5, 2006, the deal would also include the Systems Integration activities (those not dedicated to telecoms operators, and covering mainly the transport and energy sectors). In December 2008, Alcatel agreed to sell a 20.8% stake in French engineering group Thales SA to Dassault Aviation SA for €1.57 billion ($2.27 billion).

Operations
Thales Group has made many electronic devices and equipment used by the French Armed Forces from its past as Thomson-CSF, including the SPECTRA helmet for the army and the gendarmerie. It has worked with Dassault Aviation on the Rafale and made its SPECTRA defensive aids. Thales often worked with DCNS and designed the electronics used on French ships, and it is involved in the construction of both the Horizon and FREMM programs. Thales, as Thomson-CSF, was involved in the Taiwan frigates scandal, relating to the sale of La Fayette class frigates to Taiwan. It is also present in Eurosam as Thomson-CSF was a founder of the consortium along Aérospatiale and Alenia Aeronautica. In February 2004, Thales was awarded a contract for a new command and control system for the French Navy, the SIC 21, that will be fitted on the Charles de Gaulle, many vessels and shore locations. Additionally, the Future French aircraft carrier involves Thales as the main designer of the ship. Thales is also working on X-ray imaging, finances, energy and operating commercial satellites.

By 2012 the company is mainly composed of five branches: Defense, Security, Space, Aerospace and Ground transportation.

Among the EU supported projects Thales participates in are:
 * Galileo - the European system establishing GNSS, like GPS/Glonass/Compass/Beidou
 * SESAR - both as aircraft equipment manufacturer and as ATM system vendor

Defence
The company's design won the competition for the Royal Navy Future Carrier (CVF). It is part of the AirTanker consortium, the winning bid for the RAF's Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft. Thales UK won the contract for the British Army UAV programme, Watchkeeper. It also produces the SWARM remote weapon station.

Thales Air Defence produces a range of short-range missile systems such as the Starstreak surface-to-air missile.

Aerospace
The Thales ATM solution is marketed under the name "TopSky", previously named "EuroCat".

Ground Transportation
Thales has major involvement in the UK rail industry as a result of the Racal merger and the 2006 acquisition of Alcatel's Rail Signalling Solutions division and transport business. Thales holds contracts worth £480 million for providing new signalling for the London Underground.

In Denmark Thales now owns 100% the "East-west Consortium" contracted for a country-wide travel card (Danish: "Rejsekort").Thales web.

Search and Rescue
Thales, as part of the Soteria SAR consortium have been selected as the Preferred Bidder for the 25-year contract to provide civilian Search and Rescue throughout the United Kingdom.

Other activities
Thales is also a major manufacturer of in-flight entertainment systems on board airliners. Thales' primary competitors in this area of business include Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Rockwell Collins, and LiveTV (originally owned by Thales, now owned by JetBlue).

Thales Navigation, a division that produced GPS units, was sold to private equity group Shah Capital Partners and renamed Magellan.

Thales international
Thales' international subsidiaries generated 52% of the company's revenue in 2008, with Thales UK being the largest of these accounting for 13% of group revenue. Its large presence in the UK (largely as a result of the Racal acquisition) has resulted in several high profile contracts.

Thales has offices in:
 * Africa: South Africa
 * Asia: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, India, China, South Korea, Singapore
 * Europe: Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Poland, Italy, Spain, Portugal
 * Oceania: Australia
 * North America: Canada, Mexico, United States
 * South America: Brazil

Products

 * Watchkeeper WK450
 * Eurocat (transport) (during 2012 renamed TopSky)
 * Search Master and Ocean Master radars

Financial information
Thales' major shareholders are the French state (27.0%) and Dassault Aviation (25.9%).

Centralized slush fund
Michel Josserand former head of THEC, a subsidiary of Thales, and Dominique Monleau, alleged that Thales has a centralized slush fund that it uses to bribe officials.

ANC
Schabir Shaik, the financial advisor to the president of the African National Congress party Jacob Zuma, was found guilty of organising a bribe on behalf of Thales.

World Bank
The World Bank’s Integrity Unit has blacklisted Thales from any of the World Bank’s projects because of its use of large-scale bribery.

Taiwanese Naval Order
On June 10, 2011 Thales was ordered to pay 630 million euros (almost a billion US dollars) in fines after the courts heard that bribes had been paid to the Taiwanese government to win a large naval contract. To this day it is the largest corruption case in French history

Components

 * Thales Air Defence Limited
 * Thales Underwater Systems
 * Thales Nederland
 * Thales Optronics
 * Thales Rail Signalling Solutions
 * Thales Information System Belgium