Equity analysts offered their reasons why a Wall Street Journal report published yesterday that Textron is in talks with Bombardier to buy the Canadian airframer’s business jet unit could be valid. For their part, spokesmen from Bombardier and Textron declined to comment on the report that the companies have been talking for several weeks about Textron acquiring Bombardier’s Learjet, Challenger, and Global product lines. Mark Masluch of Bombardier and David Sylvestre of Textron told AIN that as a matter of policy neither company will “comment on market rumors.”

Citi analyst Jonathan Raviv yesterday wrote that “a BBD [Bombardier] deal could be accretive” for Textron as was the case with its 2013 acquisition of Hawker Beechcraft, which contributed more than nine times Hawker Beechcraft’s trailing 12-month earnings to Textron (TXT). “We think that it’s fair to think that these sorts of returns would prompt TXT to transact,” Raviv wrote, adding that it would likely boost Textron shares that have been trading at a discount for some time.

Likewise, Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu wrote that such a deal could be as much as 21 percent accretive to Texton’s earnings. It also serves to consolidate an industry with lots of competitors and little growth in recent years. “The business jet market includes seven major OEMs and given the market deliveries have been stagnant around the 650 unit mark, consolidation has always been a possibility,” Kahyaoglu wrote.