Boeing closes Spirit AeroSystems purchase in major supply chain realignment

Airbus also announces it has completed acquisition of parts of Spirit

Boeing has completed its $4.7 billion takeover of Spirit Aerosystems. Reuters

Boeing said on Monday it has closed its $4.7 billion takeover of Spirit AeroSystems, reacquiring most of the world's largest independent wing and fuselage maker.

The US plane maker's European rival Airbus also announced on Monday it had completed the acquisition of parts of Spirit. The aerostructure producer's operations in Subang, Malaysia, were spun off to Composites Technology Research Malaysia as part of Spirit's dismantling.

A subsidiary, Fiber Materials, was sold this year to Tex-Tech Industries.

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Boeing's acquisition includes all of Spirit's Boeing-related commercial operations along with parts of the company's operations in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which will operate as an independent subsidiary branded as Short Brothers.

Boeing shares rose 2 per cent on the news, while Airbus was up nearly 1 per cent.

The deal, announced in July last year, is valued at $8.3 billion overall. It is a major realignment of the commercial aerospace supply and gives Airbus and Boeing direct control over problem-plagued parts of their chains.

In recent years, the two plane makers have propped up the financially struggling company, which has been cited as one reason for delays on several jetliner programmes, including Boeing's 737 Max jet and Airbus's A350 and A220. Reducing quality problems with the fuselages has been a key focus for Boeing in its efforts to stabilise 737 production.

Spirit was created in 2005, when Boeing sold its operations in Oklahoma and Kansas to the investment firm Onex. Spirit makes 737 fuselages in Wichita, which are moved by rail to Boeing's plant in Renton, Washington.

In an effort to expand its customer base beyond Boeing, Spirit bought or opened plants in Africa, Asia, Europe and elsewhere in the US. Airbus will take over operations in North Carolina, Northern Ireland, Scotland, France and Morocco.

Airbus said it will receive compensation of $439 million as part of the transaction.

In early December, the Federal Trade Commission said the deal could proceed, as long as Boeing carried out the divestments negotiated this year with Airbus and Composites Technology Research Malaysia, and Spirit remained a supplier for Boeing's competitors for future military aircraft programmes.

Without those conditions, the FTC worried that Boeing's takeover of Spirit would give it unfair influence over competition.

In October, Boeing secured EU anti-trust approval after agreeing to sell some Spirit businesses. The deal, under which 15,000 Spirit employees become part of Boeing, could affect the plane maker's strained labour relations if the about 6,000 members of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers at Spirit rejoin the union's District 751, to which they belonged until the 2005 sale.

Most of Boeing's commercial aircraft production was brought to a stop during a seven-week strike last year by District 751 members in the Pacific Northwest.