Brazil’s Embraer blasts Boeing after $4.2bn deal scrapped
Brazilian aircraft company Embraer today attacked Boeing after the US company yesterday pulled the plug on a $4.2bn (£3.4bn) deal to buy its commercial jets division.
In a statement, Embraer said: “Embraer believes strongly that Boeing has wrongfully terminated the MTA [master transaction agreement], that it has manufactured false claims as a pretext to seek to avoid its commitments to close the transaction and pay Embraer the $4.2bn purchase price.
“We believe Boeing has engaged in a systematic pattern of delay and repeated violations of the MTA, because of its unwillingness to complete the transaction in light of its own financial condition and 737 Max and other business and reputational problems.”
Embraer said it would “pursue all remedies against Boeing for the damages incurred by Embraer as a result of Boeing’s wrongful termination and violation of the MTA.”
The deal collapsed after a midnight deadline on how to implement the 2018 deal expired.
Boeing accused Embraer of failing to meet conditions for closing the transaction.
“Over the past several months, we had productive but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations … We all aimed to resolve those by the initial termination date, but it didn’t happen,” Boeing senior vice-president Marc Allen said in a statement.
Boeing has been beset by problems recently following two fatal crashes which grounded its 737 Max programme.
On top of that, the coronavirus pandemic has hit airlines hard, grounding many aircraft and sending the sector into a deep financial crisis.
Boeing was also forced to shut down production at some of its US plants, but is now moving to get manufacturing up and running again.
The company has said it will need a bailout from the US government.