Deal Valued at $4.08 Billion in Mostly Stock, Some Cash

The Boeing Company has offered Spirit AeroSystems $35 per share to acquire the company. 

The bid has been switched from an original all-cash offer to a mostly-stock transaction with some cash. Based on Spirit’s outstanding shares as of May 7, the offer is worth $4.08 billion, representing an almost 6% premium above Spirit’s stock closing price on Monday, June 24, and more than 22% above the share price in February when the takeover talks became publicly known.

Spirit is based in Wichita, Kansas, and manufactures fuselages for Boeing’s 737 family of jetliners, as well as other aerostructures for business jets and defense platforms. Its expertise in aluminum and advanced composite manufacturing supports its core product line that includes fuselages, wings and wing components, engine nacelles, and pylons.

Talks began early this year as Boeing wants to buy back Spirit, which it had divested in 2005, to stabilize an integral part of the supply chain for its top-selling airframe. The negotiations are complicated by the fact that Spirit also provides airframe parts to Airbus, who had said it would block any deal that is associated with Boeing building Airbus parts. However, Boeing and Airbus have since said they’ve succeeded to a large extent on partitioning Spirit’s manufacturing into the work Boeing will take back and what Airbus will take.

Spirit said in a statement that it remains, "focused on providing the best quality products for our customers."

FMI: www.investors.boeing.com/investors, www.spiritaero.com/company/programs