Profits leap at Rolls Royce

AERO engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce has seen full year revenues rise by more than a quarter, with profits rising more than a fifth buoyed by the strong civil aerospace sector.
 
However, it has warned growth will pause during the current year before picking up again in 2015.
 
The company’s order book – including those lodged with its German engine making JV Tognum – stands at £71.6bn (2012: £60.1bn), an increase of 19%. Underlying full year revenue is up 27% at £15.5bn (2012: £12.2bn), with underlying pre-tax profit of £1.7bn (2012: £1.4bn), an increase of 23%.
 
Underlying earnings per share rose 10% to 65.59p (2012: 59.59p), while the dividend to shareholders rose 13% to 22p (2012: 19.5p).
 
It received orders for engines to power 334 widebody aircraft; which it said represented a significant year for civil aerospace.
 
The order book increased in the Civil Aerospace, Marine, Energy and Power Systems divisions but decreased in Defence Aerospace.  The order intake in 2013 included new orders of £18.9bn in Civil Aerospace, £1.6bn in Defence Aerospace, £2.7bn in Marine, £1.1bn in Energy and £2.7bn in Power Systems. It said the regional composition was broadly unchanged, with Asia and the Middle East representing 49% of the total order book.

Rolls Royce has around 900 staff making engine turbines at Barnoldswick, Lancashire.