Boeing has held talks to acquire Embraer: report
US aviation giant Boeing has held talks to acquire Brazil's Embraer in a bid to strengthen its portfolio in the regional jet market, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The parties have discussed a "relatively large premium" for Embraer, but the talks are on hold as the two sides await word on the Brazilian government's view of the deal, the Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.
Embraer was formed by the Brazilian government in 1969 and privatized in 1994 in a process that granted Brasilia "golden shares" with some veto rights.
US-traded shares of Embraer shot up 22.1 percent to $24.41 following the report, while Boeing dipped 0.4 percent to $296.66 in midday trading.
Boeing had no immediate comment on the report.
The move comes after Boeing rival Airbus signed an agreement this fall to take a majority stake in production of narrow-body planes made by Canadian company Bombardier. Those planes are at the center of an ongoing US-Canada trade dispute sparked by a Boeing complaint against Bombardier.
An Embraer transaction would give Boeing a portfolio of planes that could compete for some of the same business as the Bombardier aircraft.
Embraer in 2016 notched in $6.2 billion in revenues, with 56.7 percent from the commercial business, 27.8 percent from executive jets and 15 percent from defense and security, according to an Embraer filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Boeing's revenues in 2017 were $94.6 billion.