Airbus seals Spirit Aero deal

Europe's Airbus has finalised an agreement to take some assets from Spirit AeroSystems, both companies said yesterday, completing a critical part of a transatlantic carve-up of the struggling supplier with US rival Boeing.

- ALLISON LAMPERT

The US planemaker agreed last year to buy back the aerosructures giant it spun off two decades ago for $4.7 billion in stock, while Airbus moved to take on the supplier's loss-making Europe-focused activities.

Airbus would provide non-interest bearing credit lines worth $200 million to Spirit as a part of the deal, the companies said in separate statements.

Airbus, meanwhile, will be compensated by payment of $439 million from Spirit, the planemaker said.

Two key plants involved in the transfer are Kinston, North Carolina, where Spirit makes a crucial part of the A350 fuselage, and a plant in Belfast, Northern Ireland that makes carbon wings for the A220.