Spirit AeroSystems Looks at Airbus Plants -- Paper

U.S. aircraft fuselage maker Spirit AeroSystems has expressed interest in four of six plants up for sale by European airplane maker Airbus, the Financial Times Deutschland reported on Thursday. The newspaper cited Airbus sources. An Airbus spokeswoman declined to comment, saying, "This is just speculation." Spirit is a former Boeing unit. It supplies fuselage systems, propulsion systems and wing systems to Boeing, Hawker-Beechcraft and Airbus. It is the world's largest supplier of commercial airplane assemblies and components. In an April 3 note, Jeffries & Co. said Spirit "is uniquely positioned to take advantage of the continued growth in the civil aerospace market," and that it "is not shy about looking at buying other plants that serve the aerostructures market," but that it was "not going to take on someone's intractable problems." Shares are up 6.2% YTD and 22.6% since going public in November 2006.

Sources: Reuters
Commentary: Spirit AeroSystems cools after analyst notes [MW] • Less Gung-Ho on Defense Stocks [Barron's]
Stocks/ETFs to watch: Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (SPR), Boeing Co. (BA). Competitors: Goodrich Corp. (GR), Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), General Dynamics Corp. (GD). ETFs: iShares Dow Jones US Aerospace & Defense (ITA), PowerShares Aerospace & Defense (PPA)

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