Boeing Writes Down $158 Mln for Airline Loans, Leases
CHICAGO (Bloomberg News) - Boeing Co. took a $158 million charge to write down aircraft leased to money-losing air carriers such as United Airlines. The shares of the world''s largest planemaker fell 6.7 percent.
The charge erases about a third of the per-share profit analysts expected for the quarter ended Monday. The 20 cents-a-share in costs reflect the drop in the value of planes used as loan collateral and an increase in reserves for bad debts, Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing''s customer loans may be strained further as airlines park jetliners and slash orders amid a travel slump. Chairman Phil Condit has quadrupled Boeing''s lending to $11.5 billion since 1999, attempting to turn it into a money-generator like General Electric Co.''s finance business.
Financing is a double-edged sword, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at aviation-industry consultant Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. There is a certain vulnerability if you are a manufacturer playing the finance game.
CHICAGO (Bloomberg News) - Boeing Co. took a $158 million charge to write down aircraft leased to money-losing air carriers such as United Airlines. The shares of the world''s largest planemaker fell 6.7 percent.
The charge erases about a third of the per-share profit analysts expected for the quarter ended Monday. The 20 cents-a-share in costs reflect the drop in the value of planes used as loan collateral and an increase in reserves for bad debts, Boeing said in a statement.
Boeing''s customer loans may be strained further as airlines park jetliners and slash orders amid a travel slump. Chairman Phil Condit has quadrupled Boeing''s lending to $11.5 billion since 1999, attempting to turn it into a money-generator like General Electric Co.''s finance business.
Financing is a double-edged sword, said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at aviation-industry consultant Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. There is a certain vulnerability if you are a manufacturer playing the finance game.
