Договорились: С Series станет Airbus-ом на 50.01%
Airbus to Buy Majority Stake in Bombardier C Series Jet Program
Airbus SE agreed to acquire a majority stake in
Bombardier Inc.’s C Series jetliner program, breathing new life into a slow-selling plane and opening a new front in the battle with
Boeing Co. over global aircraft sales.
The European planemaker will take a 50.01 percent stake in a partnership controlling the C Series, a single-aisle plane typically seating 108 to 160 passengers that has left Montreal-based Bombardier short of cash after more than $2 billion in cost overruns. Neither company will contribute cash to the venture at the closing, nor will the combination assume any debt.
The deal remakes the global aerospace landscape by putting Airbus’s global muscle behind the C Series, for which Bombardier hasn’t won a major order in 18 months. The transaction also thrusts Airbus into the middle of Bombardier’s bitter trade dispute with archrival Boeing. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration imposed import duties of 300 percent on the C Series in recent weeks, following a complaint by the Chicago-based manufacturer.
“This is a program that has been waiting for a deus ex machina, and wow, it really got one,” Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, said in an interview. “It makes Airbus look like a global player and makes Boeing look a bit shortsighted and protectionist. It makes Boeing look like they’ve been play tic tac toe against a chess master.”
Airbus will add another final assembly line for the C Series at its factory in Mobile, Alabama, to serve U.S. customers, according to the statement. The company set up shop in Mobile in 2015 to better serve U.S. customers for the single-aisle market, the bread-and-butter category for global commercial aviation. Airbus will also expand its global industrial footprint with the final assembly line of the C Series in Canada.
“The agreement brings together Airbus’ global reach and scale with Bombardier’s newest, state-of-the-art jet aircraft family,” the companies said in a statement Monday.
Advanced Technology
By adding the C Series to its lineup of larger jetliners, Toulouse, France-based Airbus gains a new dimension for its portfolio while gaining access to an advanced aircraft that cost Bombardier more than $6 billion to develop.
Depending on the variant, the all-new C Series is generally smaller than Airbus’s best-selling A320 family of jets, which debuted in the late 1980s. The A320neo, with upgraded engines, has become the fastest-selling aircraft model in commercial history. Both the C Series and the A320neo are powered by the geared turbofan engine made by Pratt & Whitney, a division of
United Technologies Corp.
After the transaction, which is expected to be completed in the second half of next year, the Canadian planemaker will own about 31 percent of the C Series partnership. The province of Quebec, which invested $1 billion in the C Series after the cost overruns and delays, will hold approximately 19 percent.
A Canadian government official said the deal is expected to be approved after its required review. The official, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private, characterized the deal as a company-to-company agreement that nonetheless had the support of France, Germany and Canada -- the latter in part because it would preserve Bombardier jobs in the company’s home country.
Another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the sale would have no impact on the previously announced federal funding for Bombardier. Canada pledged C$372.5 million ($300 million) in “repayable program contributions” earlier this year.
Update:
Discussions with Bombardier started in August, said Airbus Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders. The Canadian company had also been in touch with a small group of Chinese state-owned enterprises about a C Series stake, said two people familiar with the talks.
Bombardier’s talks with China included Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, or Comac, said one of the people, who asked not to be named because discussions were private. Comac declined to comment on the Airbus deal and its media relations department said it wasn’t aware of any talks with Bombardier. The Canadian company declined to comment.
The Bombardier deal marks a reversal for Enders, who personally vetoed a similar accord just two years ago, when the future of the C Series was in doubt and Airbus was grappling with the ramp-up of its bigger A350 model. Airbus isn’t interested in any other Bombardier assets, he said.
“Airbus gives the program security,” he said of the C Series in a telephone interview. Whereas some customers may have wavered previously because they couldn’t be sure of long-term customer support from the manufacturer, Airbus’s industrial heft changes the equation, he said.