Spirit Aero to Be Broken Up as Boeing Agrees $4.7 Billion Stock Deal

Boeing agreed to buy back Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion in stock and Airbus moved to take on the supplier’s loss-making Europe-focused activities in return for hundreds of millions of dollars of compensation following months of talks. The near-two-decade independence of the world’s largest standalone aerostructures company ended in a carve-up between its largest customers after the latest Boeing 737 MAX crisis, sparked by a mid-air door plug blowout in January, brought to a head doubts over the resilience of fuselage manufacturing. Boeing, which spun off Spirit in 2005, said it would repurchase its former subsidiary for about $37.25 per share, giving it an enterprise value of $8.3 billion including debt....