On Boeing’s side, the transaction will be all-stock, at a price of $37.25 per share, valuing Spirit AeroSystems at $4.7 billion. Including Spirit’s debt, the deal is valued at $8.3 billion, the American manufacturer explained in a statement.
Boeing represents by far Spirit’s largest customer, 60% of whose revenues came from the aircraft manufacturer in 2022, including fuselages. But the equipment manufacturer is also a strategic supplier to Airbus, for which it notably produces wing elements.
In a separate statement on Monday, the European aircraft manufacturer said it had “entered into a binding agreement with Spirit AeroSystems relating to the potential acquisition of major activities related to Airbus”. The transaction will be done for a symbolic dollar, and Airbus will even receive compensation of $559 million, according to the initial terms of the agreement, subject to change and subject to the imprimatur of the authorities.
And this comes as Airbus will have to make additional investments at Spirit to support the ramp-up of production. This is a crucial issue for the European manufacturer, which revised downward its annual targets for deliveries of commercial aircraft last week.
“We believe this agreement is in the best interests of travelers, our customers, Spirit and Boeing employees, our shareholders and our country more generally,” Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said in his company’s statement.
Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems had confirmed preliminary discussions in early March regarding this remarriage. Spirit AeroSystems, created in 2005 by Boeing, is in fact the result of several of its activities grouped together in an independent company.
Spirit AeroSystems and Boeing have been under scrutiny since a door on the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 came loose in mid-flight on Jan. 5.
– “stability of supply” –
On March 4, the United States Aviation Agency (FAA) indicated that “non-compliance issues in the manufacturing control process, handling and storage of spare parts and production control” had been spotted at Boeing and Spirit AeroSystems.
Three of the four families of commercial airplanes currently manufactured by Boeing are under FAA investigation for quality problems: the 737, 777 and 787 Dreamliner.
The acquisition envisaged by Airbus, subject to a due diligence process by the troubled equipment manufacturer, would concern “major activities linked to Airbus”, according to the European group.
It would concern in particular the production of fuselage sections of the A350 located in Kinston (North Carolina) and Saint-Nazaire (France), wings and the central fuselage of the A220 in Belfast (Northern Ireland) and Casablanca (Morocco), as well as pylons of the A220 in Wichita (Kansas).
“With this agreement, Airbus intends to ensure the stability of the supply of its commercial aircraft programs through a more sustainable evolution, both operationally and financially, of the various Airbus work packages for which Spirit AeroSystems is currently responsible.”
Launched into an outsourcing policy to retain only the final assembly of aircraft, Boeing separated in 2005 from its factory in Wichita (Kansas), specializing in aerostructures, giving birth to Spirit AeroSystems. The company has since diversified its customers and grown through acquisitions.
But its difficulties led Boeing to announce in early March that it was considering reintegrating Spirit. It was unthinkable for Airbus that its main competitor would become one of its strategic suppliers.
Airbus executive chairman Guillaume Faury said at the end of April he was monitoring the situation “closely”.
“We do not want significant work packages to be provided by our main and only competitor,” he stressed.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, Airbus shares rose 1.67% to 130.40 euros, in a market up 1.13% at around 11:50 a.m.
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