Profits up at Rolls-Royce as new CEO aims for ‘winning culture’
Rolls-Royce has posted improved full-year turnover figures for 2022 – but its new CEO says the firm is “capable of so much more”.
Underlying profit came in at £652m last year, up by £238m on 2021, while turnover rose to almost £12.7bn. The company, which employs around 3,000 people in Bristol, was boosted by strong new order wins in Civil Aerospace and Defence and a record order book in its Power Systems division.
However, Rolls has said that it won’t be paying a dividend to shareholders for 2022. A statement read: “Shareholder payments will not be made for 2022. We are committed to returning to an investment grade credit rating through performance improvement, and to resuming shareholder payments.”
Rolls has forecasted underlying profit guidance of between £800m and £1bn for 2023 and has said that a strategic review is underway to identify investment priorities, with medium-term financial targets to be set in the second half of the year.
Tufan Erginbilgic, Rolls’ new CEO, said: “It is an honour to lead Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s most trusted brands and a business with strong positions in growing markets. Our people take tremendous pride in our innovation and engineering solutions. Together, we must now move at pace and harness that pride to create a high-performing, growing and competitive business.
“While our performance improved in 2022, we are capable of much more. Our transformation programme will improve our efficiency and commercial outcomes, and deliver a sustainable reduction in working capital. This will require a winning culture, underpinned by more effective performance management and a shared determination to deliver cash and reduce debt. Our success will enable us to reward investors for their support and invest in future growth.
“Our transformation programme is already underway and is moving at pace. It will include a strategic review so that we can prioritise our investment towards the most profitable opportunities. We will report the findings together with our medium-term goals in the second half of this year.”
