BAE Systems is expected to press ahead with the sale of its 20 per cent stake in Airbus, the struggling European plane maker, despite a disappointing valuation for the holding and a hit to the British defence group's share price as a result.

In an independent assessment of Airbus released over the weekend, investment bank NM Rothschild said the majority owner, EADS, should pay BAE just €2.75 billion (£1.9 billion) for the one-fifth shareholding it does not already own.

The valuation falls far short of the at least €3.5 billion investors had been hoping for, and prompted a more than 3 per cent fall in BAE's share price this morning. Amid trading volumes topping 14 million shares, BAE was 11.75p lower at 358p.

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Shares in EADS, which trades on the Paris arm of Euronext, also lost ground, down 0.4 per cent at €22.37.

The proposed sale of the Airbus stake by BAE is structured as a put option, which makes it difficult for the defence group to withdraw from the deal.

However, it is still technically possible for BAE to advise its shareholders to vote against a sale, or indeed commission a second independent valuation by another bank.

City analysts today voiced doubts over whether the current valuation would be recommended by the BAE board and said there was "a real possibility" shareholders would reject it.

BAE said over the weeked that it "will now consider its recommendation to shareholders regarding the proposed disposal". A board meeting is expected imminently with the deal originally pencilled in to complete at the end of this month.

BAE declined to comment to Times Online today on its intentions regarding the sale.

But despite suffering the valuation, which it is known to be disappointed by, BAE is thought to be preparing to keep to its original schedule.

The low valuation for Airbus is the latest setback to hit EADS, which generates about 80 per cent of its profits from the plane maker.

Yesterday Noel Forgeard, EADS' joint chief executive, resigned, as did Gustav Humbert, the head of Airbus. Both executives had been under pressure since EADS was forced to admit damaging delays to the delivery of its new Airbus A380 super-jumbo.

M Forgeard came under the spotlight after it emerged that he excercised share options three months before the revelations over the delays emerged.

M Humbert accepted responsibility for the delays at Airbus, while M Forgeard has always stressed that the delays were thought manageable at the time he excercised the options.

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