RE:BBD showing ‘strong interest’ in deal for Spirit Belfast A source said: “Bombardier is strongly interested in purchasing the remaining part of Spirit AeroSystems in Belfast, excluding the wing production of the A220 units.”
Sources said Bombardier’s involvement is at the “interest phase”, rather than in active negotiations. Any discussions will be with Spirit, in a side deal, before Spirit is sold to Boeing.
Any deal between Spirit and Bombardier is expected to be complex, and no values are yet attached
A spokesperson for Spirit AeroSystems in Belfast said: “Spirit and Airbus continue to negotiate in good faith for Airbus to acquire our A220 programmes in Belfast. We are evaluating options for our other Belfast operations.
“Meanwhile, we continue to operate business as usual across our sites and remain focused on providing the best-quality products to all our customers.”
Asked for comment, Bombardier said M&A conversations were covered by strict non-disclosure agreements, “whether the conversations are actively happening or not”.
Stephen Kelly of industry body Manufacturing NI said: “The Spirit business would be an incredible asset for any aerospace primary or top-tier supplier.
“It has a unique engineering capability, an expertise in lightweight structures and a fully tooled manufacturing footprint which would be hard, and costly, to try to replicate anywhere else.”
The deal would solve a headache for Airbus, which would not wish to be operating in Belfast in a larger site owned by arch-rival Boeing.
In April, Spirit UK chairman Michael Ryan wrote to unions and political leaders saying a break-up of the site would be “extremely detrimental” to Northern Ireland’s economy.
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