BAE buys Ball Aerospace for $5.5bn

BAE Systems on Thursday said it had bought Ball Corporation's aerospace business $5.55bn in cash as it looked to cash in on higher government defence spending in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Ball Aerospace makes spacecraft, mission payloads, optical systems, and antenna systems, serving the intelligence community, US Department of Defense, and civilian space agencies, BAE said in a statement.

Ball Corp said it would use the proceeds to trim its $9.7bn debt pile, return money to shareholders and speed up organic growth across its global packaging operations.

BAE said the acquisition would be funded by a combination of new external debt and existing cash resources. The deal is expected to close in the first six months of next year.

"The strategic and financial rationale is compelling, as we continue to focus on areas of high priority defence and Intelligence spending," BAE chief executive Charles Woodburn said in a statement.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com