Boeing Agrees to Buy Vought Aircraft 787 Operations

By Susanna Ray

July 7 (Bloomberg) -- Boeing Co. agreed to buy Vought Aircraft
Industries’ 787 Dreamliner operations in South Carolina for about $580
million after production bottlenecks at the facility added to two years
of delays for the plane.

Vought also will be released from obligations to repay advances,
Chicago-based Boeing said today in a statement. The facility in North
Charleston performs fabrication and assembly on the Dreamliner’s
fuselage and will be managed by Boeing’s 787 program.

Troubles with suppliers contributed to the five delays in the 787, and
Boeing previously identified Vought as a problem partner because it
wasn’t able to complete agreed-upon work. Boeing, the world’s
second-largest commercial-aircraft maker, said in May that the
“bottlenecks” in South Carolina had cleared up.

The acquisition “should increase the efficiency and seamlessness within
the 787 supply chain,” Rob Stallard, a New York-based analyst with
Macquarie Capital Inc., wrote in a note today. He rates Boeing shares
“outperform.”

Vought, owned by private equity firm Carlyle Group, will continue work
on other Boeing programs, including building other parts for the 787,
737 and 747, Boeing said.

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There's nothing like a "private equity group" to make whatever problems
there are at a company...worse.

Well, there's also the South Carolina factor. Gosh...why would a major
manufacturer be in that state? For cheap, badly trained labor, maybe?