Airbus to sign deal with Spirit Aero in weeks: CFO

(Reuters) - Airbus expects to firm up a deal to take over some of Spirit AeroSystems European operations in the next few weeks, the planemaker's CFO said on Thursday, as part of a transatlantic breakup of the aerostructures manufacturer.

"We're making good progress. I think it would be realistic to expect that this will happen in the next weeks," Airbus CFO Thomas Toepfer told reporters in Toulouse, France, about a deal signing.

Boeing has said it would buy back its former subsidiary Spirit Aero, which is a critical supplier to Boeing, for $4.7 billion in stock.

Spirit Aero also produces key parts for some Airbus jets, and Airbus will take some of those activities in a deal expected to close by mid-2025. Toepfer said closing by July 1 was a "realistic assumption."

Airbus reached a binding term sheet last year with Spirit Aero, but a formal agreement, initially expected last year, has not been concluded yet. Airbus will receive compensation because it will take on some loss-making operations.

Sources told Reuters that talks have been challenging due to questions about how to divide intellectual property, along with the future of a Spirit Aero plant in Northern Ireland.

Airbus is expected to take a part of the Belfast factory that produces wings for the planemaker's smallest A220 jet.

The Airbus deal could exclude part of the plant that produces jet parts for Canada's Bombardier, which has said it is a potential buyer for that operation.

Earlier this week, a union at the Spirit Aero plant in Belfast called for all operations to go to a single entity.

The Boeing acquisition is important since Kansas-based Spirit Aero has said it has total financial liquidity of just $890 million but expects to burn $650 million to $700 million in free cash during the first half of 2025.

Spirit Aero is critical for Boeing because it produces the fuselage for the planemaker's 737 MAX jet, its strongest-selling plane. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Thursday said Spirit Aero's production quality has improved since he joined the U.S. planemaker six months ago.

(Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro and Allison Lampert; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)