Saturday 07 Dec 2024
By
main news image

(Nov 9): Boeing Co is exploring a sale of its Jeppesen navigation unit as the planemaker draws up a list of assets it could shed to help lighten its US$58 billion (RM254.16 billion) debt load, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is working with an adviser on the potential sale of the provider of interactive flight plans, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential matters.

Suitors are already circling Jeppesen, which could attract sizeable interest from private equity firms as well as other companies, said the people. The unit could fetch more than US$6 billion, depending on the buyer appetite and peer group of comparable assets, some of the people said.

Boeing’s shares reversed earlier losses to trade up less than 1% as of 12.19pm in New York.

A sale process for the asset, which is profitable and commands a broad customer base from airlines to amateur pilots, could happen as soon as the first half of 2025, the people said. Boeing said last month that it will continue to use rather than generate cash in that period as recovers from a 53-day strike that shut down its factories along the West Coast.

The portfolio review is ongoing and Boeing could still decide to hold onto the business, the people cautioned. A spokesman for the company declined to comment.

Selling Jeppesen, which Boeing acquired in 2000 for US$1.5 billion in cash, would help whittle down its towering debt. Those in favour of a divestment argue that it would generate significant proceeds and be easier to carve out than other assets.

At the same time, parting with the aviation navigation pioneer dating back to the 1930s would deprive Boeing of an asset with a reliably strong financial performance and cash flow, the people said.

Asked last month about the possibility of a Jeppesen sale, Boeing chief executive officer Kelly Ortberg said he’s reviewing the company portfolio to study whether a business or product fits with the long-term strategy or whether it would be better off someplace else. He declined to comment on the plans for Jeppesen.

“I just don’t have that list to tell you right now what am I going to do,” Ortberg told analysts on an earnings call. 

Ortberg has made clear that he’s seeking to divest non-core assets as part of a broader push to shore up the balance sheet and focus resources on the core commercial jet and defence manufacturing. As part of the initiative, which Ortberg aims to complete by year end, Boeing is also exploring whether to continue its troubled Starliner programme for Nasa amid mounting losses, Bloomberg has reported. 

Many of the companies that Boeing has bought over the previous two decades could again be readied for disposal, according to Cai von Rumohr, an analyst with TD Cowen. Along with Jeppesen, the former KLX and Aviall parts distribution businesses could be sold, he said in an Oct 1 report. Aurora Flight Sciences and Wisk Aero, which are developing experimental and urban mobility aircraft, are also among the possible divestiture candidates, he said.

Boeing doesn’t need to move urgently on asset sales now that it has resolved two of its most pressing crises. The company just ended a seven-week strike with its largest union, and it raised as much as US$24 billion to shore up its investment-grade credit rating. That measure should give Boeing the resources to navigate through any operational issues in the near to medium term and cover the US$12 billion in debt that’s maturing over the next two years.

Ortberg joined the company in August. An engineer by training, he previously ran Rockwell Collins, an electronics manufacturer that’s now part of RTX Corp. Among Rockwell Collins’ products are cockpit communications and computing products that overlap with Jeppesen’s offerings.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee

      Print
      Text Size
      Share