Airbus pushes up BAE profits

Manufacturing News, Source : TheManufacturer.com
Published : 23 Feb 2006 9:10
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Operating profits at BAE Systems have risen by 16 per cent to £900 million. Europe's largest defence group attributed the success to strong orders for Airbus planes.

Sales rose to £15.4 billion, up from £13.2 billion in 2004. The growth reflects sales of £789 million from the acquisition of US firm United Defense, which BAE bought for £2.1bn in March last year.

The company said orders for Airbus planes, the plane maker in which it owns a 20 per cent stake, had been "substantially ahead of plan", and that demand had been stimulated by the “enhanced operating economics” of new products such as the A380 and A350 airliners currently under development.

Looking forward to 2006, BAE said it expected to translate operating profit into operating cash flow, other than some small utilisation of customer advances. It also intends to make one-off cash contributions to the pension schemes over the coming year.

 

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