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By Tim Hepher, Shivani Tanna and Mike Stone
(Reuters) -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, sending shares in all three companies higher in a rare transatlantic break-up.
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's core Wichita and Oklahaoma plants in 2005, said it would repurchase its former subsidiary for about $37.25 per share, as reported by Reuters on Sunday, giving it an enterprise value of $8.3 billion including debt.
"Bringing Spirit and Boeing together will enable greater integration of both companies' manufacturing and engineering capabilities, including safety and quality systems," Spirit CEO Pat Shanahan said in a statement.
Spirit shares rose 3.6% in early U.S. trading, while Boeing gained 2%
The Wichita, Kansas-based company said the deal offered a 30% premium versus the day before Boeing and Spirit announced talks to bring the struggling supplier back in house on March 1.
Boeing has long pondered buying back its former subsidiary, which analysts say has struggled to thrive independently despite diversifying into work for Europe's Airbus and others.
The decision to go ahead comes as Boeing tries to resolve a sprawling corporate and industrial crisis that has engulfed one of the industry's key suppliers.
Boeing is trying to move past months of difficulties sparked by the Jan. 5 blowout of a door plug on a virtually new Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet that exposed quality problems.
Those issues have led to a substantial slowdown in output at Boeing, rippling across the global commercial aviation industry.
Rating agency Fitch said the deal should be "operationally beneficial" to Boeing, allowing it to better plan and control future 737 MAX production.
The U.S. planemaker has announced the planned departure of CEO Dave Calhoun in the wake of the crisis, with industry executives and analysts pointing to Spirit's Shanahan, a former senior Boeing executive, as one of the possible replacements.
It was not immediately clear how long he might be tied to Spirit, with the Boeing deal not due to close until mid-2025.
In a note to investors, Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned said the deal "should add clarity ... potentially for the Boeing board’s attention to move to the decision on the next CEO".