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Airbus (AIR) said on Monday that it agreed to acquire some of Sprit Aerosystems’s facilities for making jet parts, completing a carve-up with Boeing (BA) of the struggling supplier and taking direct control of production.
As part of the agreement, Airbus, based in Amsterdam, will extend $200 million in non-interest-bearing credit lines to Spirit AeroSystems (SPR) and will receive a cash payment of $439 million from Spirit. In return, it will take over several of Spirit’s plants in the United States, Europe, and Africa that produce fuselage sections and other components for Airbus’ commercial aircraft.
Spirit, which spun off from Boeing in 2005, has been at the center of quality issues affecting Boeing’s 737 MAX jets. Last year, Boeing announced it would reacquire the parts maker in an $8.3 billion deal in an effort to stabilize its supply chain and address quality issues at Spirit. The acquisition is expected to be completed mid-year.
Airbus said in a press release that with this acquisition it “aims to ensure stability of supply for its commercial aircraft programmes through a more sustainable way forward, both operationally and financially, for key Airbus work packages.”
Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting earlier this month that supply-chain hurdles, particularly with Spirit, were putting pressure on plans to ramp up production of its A220 narrow-body and A350 wide-body aircraft.