Boeing to sell commercial plane plants

0 Comments | USA TODAY, February, 2005 | by Byron Acohido

SEATTLE -- In its largest divestiture, Boeing on Tuesday announced the sale of its commercial airplane plants in Kansas and Oklahoma to Canadian investors, and its California-based Rocketdyne rocket engine subsidiary to United Technologies.

Toronto-based Onex will acquire Boeing's aircraft plant in Wichita, along with factories in Tulsa and McAlester, Okla., for $900 million in cash and the assumption of $300 million in liabilities.

United Technologies, parent of jet-engine maker Pratt & Whitney, will get Rocketdyne, based in Canoga Park, Calif., with operations in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida, for about $700 million in cash.

Boeing confirmed last year that it planned to sell the Wichita plant, and speculation had circulated for months that Rocketdyne...