Boeing swings to fourth-quarter profit on unit sale, stronger deliveries

By Dan Catchpole and Nathan Gomes SEATTLE, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Boeing swung to a fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday, driven by the sale of its navigation software services provider, as well as rising jet output and stronger deliveries. The company also recorded a $565 million charge on its KC-46 aerial-refueling tanker program due to higher estimated production support and supply chain costs. The planemaker earned a net profit of $8.22 billion, or $10.23 per share, for the quarter through December, compared with a loss of $3.86 billion, or $5.46 per share, a year earlier. The profit swing indicates that the company was getting a grip on the production of its 737 MAX and 787 jets as it irons out quality problems that have caused significant delivery delays at the planemaker over the last few years. In what has been a tumultuous first year for CEO Kelly Ortberg, Boeing settled a prolonged labor strike in its defense business and reached a deal with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid criminal prosecution over two fatal crashes of 737 MAX.  The quarterly results included the sale of Jeppesen to Thoma Bravo for $10.6 billion in cash and the reacquisition of Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion in stock. Boeing paid down Spirit's debt by roughly $3 billion, resulting in a net gain of about $7.6 billion. Boeing brought in $375 million in cash in the fourth quarter, but it still burned $1.9 billion in cash for the year, in part due to ongoing certification delays on the 737 MAX and 777X programs.  (Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru and Dan Catchpole in Seattle; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Rod Nickel)

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