WOEING: Boeing is borrowing $10 billion as it burns cash fixing its issues.
In March, Boeing CFO Brian West warned investors that fixing his company’s problems would be expensive. He wasn’t kidding: When Boeing presented earnings last week, it reported burning through nearly $4 billion in cash.
Bloomberg reports that there was nearly $80 billion in demand for the debt, which helped Boeing get a better interest rate. Both Moody’s and S&P have Boeing just a notch away from a speculative-grade (or “junk”) credit rating, which would substantially reduce the pool of money that would be allowed to purchase its bonds and notes. Moody’s reiterated its wariness in the rating it put on the new borrowings, giving the notes a “Baa3″ rating, also one step above speculative-territory.
“The negative outlook incorporates Moody’s view that the headwinds buffeting Commercial Airplanes will persist at least through 2026,” the firm said in a note explaining the rating for Boeing’s latest debt offerings. “The path to restoring compliance, higher quality and strong cash flow in its commercial aircraft assembly operations remains fraught with execution risk.”
The engineers need to be back in charge again but the Commercial Airplanes division’s new CEO is finance specialist Stephanie Pope.