Spirit to exit Russian joint venture
Nov 01, 2013 | 05:40 PM
| Frank Haflich
Tags
Spirit AeroSystems International Holdings,
aerospace subcontractor,
aerospace market,
strategic financial review,
joint venture,
Russia,
sell-off,
Progresstech Group of Companies
Airbus SAS XWB
LOS ANGELES — Spirit AeroSystems International Holdings Inc. will end its participation in a six-year-old Russian joint venture as part of a "strategic and financial review" of the company’s business.
The Wichita, Kan.-based Tier 1 aerospace contractor will sell its 50-percent interest in engineering services provider Spirit-Progresstech LLC to a company affiliated with its partner, Moscow-based Progresstech Group of Companies. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
The move is part of a review of Spirit’s major aircraft programs aimed at resolving cost problems at the Wichita-based company, which was forced to write off $590 million in the third quarter of 2012.
President and chief executive officer Larry Lawson said recently that Spirit has "concluded" its review and will provide financial guidance when it reports its fourth-quarter and full-year 2013 results early next year.
Meanwhile, Spirit continued to post write-offs in the third quarter, with various aspects of its work on Toulouse, France-based Airbus SAS’ A350 XWB accounting for $112 million of a total $124 million in pretax charges.
Shipset deliveries during the quarter were 338, up 8 percent over last year. This year’s third-quarter deliveries included a total of 151 deliveries to Boeing Co.
Spirit is widely considered to be Chicago-based Boeing’s largest subcontractor.