The sale of Bombardier in east Belfast is set to be finalised this week. The company, which has around 3,000 staff, is Northern Ireland’s largest employer in manufacture. The deal is part of a $1.2 billion deal.
The new buyer, Spirit, is a major US aerospace manufacturer with customers including Boeing, and is also buying Bombardier operations in Dallas and Morocco, paying a sun of $275m in cash for all three sections of the business, as well as forking out $824m for liabilities.
Eric Martel, president and chief executive of Bombardier, said: “Today’s announcement marks another milestone towards achieving our strategic goal of repositioning Bombardier as a pure-play business jet company.
“We are very excited about our future as a more focused company. The proceeds from this transaction and from the pending sale of Bombardier Transportation strengthen our liquidity and position us to begin reshaping our capital structure and address our balance sheet challenges so that we can achieve the full potential of our incredibly talented employees and our industry-leading business jet portfolio.”
