Rolls-Royce today announced pre-tax profits of £1.4bn up 24% on their 2011 results. It is the tenth year in a row that the British company has recorded a profit.
The civil aerospace division took £10.3bn worth of new orders, a five percent increase in back orders. The growth is being driven by demand for Rolls-Royce’s Trent jet engines designed for wide-body aircraft such as Airbus’ A380, A350 and A330 as well as Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.
John Rishton, CEO of Rolls-Royce said: “The strength of our order book demonstrates the confidence our customers have in our products and services.
“In 2013, we expect modest growth in revenue and good growth in underlying profit with cash flow around break even as we continue to invest for the future.”
The news was released on the same day that it was confirmed that Sir Simon Robertson, chairman of Rolls-Royce is to retire and be replaced by Ian Davis.
Mr Davis was previously chairman and worldwide managing director of consultancy firm McKinsey. He will take over from Sir Robertson, who has been chairman for eight years, at the Rolls-Royce AGM on the 2 May this year.
The group reported pre-tax profits in all its divisions although income was down in the Marine and Energy divisions. The order book for defence aerospace also fell by 15% to £5.2bn as governments try to rein in defence spending in the difficult economic climate.
The company maintained high R&D investing £919m in 2012, with over two thirds being spent on improving environmental performance. The figure brings their total R&D spending to £4.5bn over the past five years.
The recent grounding of the Trent 1000 powered Dreamliner has not hurt Rolls-Royce’s business according to Josh Rosenstock communications director.
“It hasn’t hurt our business at all. As it is the start of the program there are only 22 aircraft with our engines which is negligible compared to the size of our fleet.”
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