US firm to take control of Bombardier in NI

The US firm Spirit Aerosystems will take control of Bombardier's Northern Ireland operations on Friday.

It ends a period of uncertainty for Bombardier's 3,000 employees in Northern Ireland.

The deal with Spirit, which is based in Kansas, was originally reached more than a year ago.

Since then the aerospace industry has been in a state of turmoil with some major deals collapsing.

Spirit, for example, withdrew from a deal to buy ASCO, a Belgian parts manufacturer.

The US-firm said the terms of the original deal with Bombardier have been renegotiated with the the cash payable falling from $500m (£384m) to $275m (£211m).

Chief executive Tom Gentile said the price reduction reflected the impact of coronavirus on the wider industry.

"As with the rest of the aerostructures industry, performance will be adversely impacted due to Covid-19 for the coming years, but we worked closely with Bombardier on a mutually agreeable price reduction that mitigates this impact.

"Going forward, we look forward to becoming one of Bombardier's largest suppliers."

Spirit also takes on some Bombardier liabilities such as pensions and repayable government grants.

A spokesperson for Bombardier Belfast said: "We are delighted with today's announcement and look forward to becoming part of Spirt AeroSystems on closure of the transaction on Friday 30 October."

Spirit is a major supplier to Airbus and Boeing. The company wants to do more work for Airbus.

Buying Bombardier's Northern Ireland operation is part of that strategy.

The wings for the Airbus A220 are made at Bombardier's Belfast plant.

Spirit is also buying a Bombardier factory is Morocco and a repair facility in the US.