Boeing has raised $21 billion in a new public stock offering as the planemaker looks to recover from a torrid year and crippling strikes.
On October 28, 2024, Boeing announced that it plans to use the capital raised for debt repayment, working capital enhancements, capital expenditures, and investments in its subsidiaries.
Boeing initially announced it was offering 90 million shares of common stock and $5 billion in depositary shares, but hours later revised this to 112 million shares.
The public offering price per share was set at $143 and was set to raise $15.81 billion along with $4.9 billion of depositary shares.
According to Bloomberg, $21.1 billion in capital was raised including $16.1 billion common shares.
A seven-week strike has been one of multiple issues that the new CEO Kelly Ortberg has been forced to address since he became the head of Boeing in August 2024.
The workers’ strike is the most urgent with the industrial action reportedly costing Boeing $100 million cash each day.
Boeing’s most recent contract proposal was put to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) on October 23, 2024, but it was rejected by 64% of its 33,000 members working for the planemaker.
Even before strikes began, Boeing was trying to recover from the fallout of an incident in January 2024, when a door plug separated from an Alaska Airlines 737-9 shortly after takeoff.
The incident led to huge questions over Boeing’s safety and quality procedures during the aircraft manufacturing process.
Several whistleblowers appeared in front of Senate Committees to reveal questionable practices at Boeing’s facilities and aircraft production slowed leaving airlines around the world frustrated by undelivered planes.
On October 11, 2024, Ortberg told employees that the delivery date for the first 777X aircraft has been pushed back to 2026 while production of MAX jets has also been severely hampered this year.