Wichita ? Anxiety over the fate of The Boeing Co.’s Wichita plant intensified Monday, along with speculation about potential buyers for Kansas’ biggest private employer.

One name has repeatedly topped industry analysts’ lists: GKN Aerospace Services, the British company that purchased Boeing’s Hazelwood, Mo., facility near St. Louis in 2001.

GKN spokeswoman Leigh Forrester said Monday that the company did not comment on rumors of mergers and acquisitions.

“There is good reason for that rumor,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president for analysis at the Teal Group, a Virginia firm that tracks the aerospace manufacturing industry.

One reason for GKN’s interest is that the Wichita plant will get much of the composite materials work on Boeing’s new 7E7 flagship plane, Aboulafia said.

GKN, with more than 5,800 employees in 11 manufacturing centers worldwide, is a world leader in the production of composite assemblies for airframes and engines.

The Wichita plant also would mesh well with GKN’s St. Louis facility, Aboulafia said.

The Seattle Times, citing an internal Boeing planning document, reported Sunday the company was considering the sale of its 75-year-old manufacturing facility in Wichita.

The timing of any sale was unclear in the document, which a company insider gave to the newspaper. No prospective buyers were named.

Fred Ogbodo works on the interior of a 737 upper cab at the Boeing plant in Wichita. The Boeing Co. is considering the sale of its 75-year-old manufacturing plant in Wichita, according to an internal document obtained by The Seattle Times. Ogbodo worked last week at the plant, which employs about 12,400 people.

Boeing’s Wichita plant, which employs about 12,400 people, houses the company’s largest remaining segment of aircraft-component manufacturing. Selling the facility would be the most dramatic move yet in the company’s stated mission to reduce its role in the business of making plane parts.

Philip Finnegan, director of corporate analysis at Teal, also said GKN was a prime candidate because the company is interested in increasing its presence in the United States, something now made easier by the dollar’s weakness against the pound.

Another possible buyer for the Wichita site is the Carlyle Group, a Washington, D.C.-based investment company with aerospace interests, Aboulafia said. The Carlyle Group had no comment.

Boeing also has declined to comment on the rumored sale and sent a memo to its Wichita employees, urging them to focus on their jobs.