Boeing said Monday it had agreed to buy back its largest supplier, New York Stock Exchange-listed Spirit AeroSystems, two decades after selling it in an all-stock deal for approximately $4.7 billion, or $37.25 per share. File photo by Andy Rain/EPA-EFE
July 1 (UPI) — Boeing said Monday it had agreed to acquire Spirit AeroSystems, a key supplier for its 737 Max model.
Boeing announced the all-stock deal to acquire Spirit AeroSystems for approximately $4.7 billion, or $37.25 per share, in which the U.S. aerospace giant will also assume Spirit AS debt of around $8.3 billion.
“We believe this deal is in the best interest of the flying public, our airline customers, the employees of Spirit and Boeing, our shareholders and the country more broadly,” Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun in a news release.
“By reintegrating Spirit, we can fully align our commercial production systems, including our Safety and Quality Management Systems, and our workforce to the same priorities, incentives and outcomes — centered on safety and quality.”
The acquisition included “substantially” all of Spirit AeroSystems’ Boeing-related commercial operations, as well as additional commercial, defense and aftermarket operations with Boeing committing support for the continuity of operations supporting Spirit’s customers and programs, including working with the U.S. Department of Defense and Spirit defense customers regarding defense and security missions.
“We are proud of the role Boeing plays in supporting our men and women in uniform and are committed to ensuring continuity for Spirit’s defense programs,” said Calhoun.
The sale is subject to a parallel deal for Boeing-rival Airbus to acquire, pending definitive agreements and regulatory approval, European units of Spirt AeroSystems’ business that supply Airbus, timed to coincide with the completion of the Boeing-Spirit merger in the middle of next year.
Included, are a plant in Belfast that makes the wings and fuselage for Airbus’ narrow-body A220 aircraft.
Witchita, Kan.,-based Spirit AeroSystems also plans to spin off non-Airbus related parts of its operation in Northern Ireland –where it is the largest source of manufacturing jobs with about 3,500 employees — and in Prestwick, Scotland, and Subang in Malaysia.
The Boeing-Spirit AeroSystems deal, which is subject to approval by Spirt AeroSystems shareholders and regulators, comes two weeks after the Federal Aviation Administration launched an investigation after Boeing notified it about falsified documents related to titanium components Spirit AeroSystems purchased from a Chinese company.
Boeing made the disclosure voluntarily after Spirit Aerosystems, which mainly supplies Boeing with fuselage parts began a probe of titanium shipments that may have been accompanied by paperwork that called into question their authenticity and true origin.
Italian and Turkish companies in the supply chain of the titanium are also being looked at.
The FAA, which said Boeing had made contact regarding the procurement through a distributor “who may have falsified or provided incorrect records,” stressed it was gauging the scope of the issue and working to figure out the safety impacts on planes manufactured with the materials.
Boeing has not confirmed which aircraft may have been affected but the New York Times, which broke the story, reported it involved some 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner jets produced between 2019 and 2023 as well as some Airbus A220s.
In May, Spirit AeroSystems blamed a slowdown in deliveries by its biggest customer for laying off as many at 450 of its 12,600 workforce at its Witchita plant which makes fuselages for the 737 Max.
Aircraft deliveries have been hit by Boeing implementing stricter inspections to address quality issues highlighted by the Jan. 5 door panel blowout aboard an Alaskan Airlines 737 Max 9 aircraft.