ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries (IAI) reports that it ended 1994 with a loss of $45.5 million, as the group presses ahead with its sweeping programme of restructuring and job cuts.

In 1993, the group posted losses of $451 million after putting aside a total of $388 million to cover the initial phase of its re-organisation. In 1994, IAI spent an additional $5.5 million on workforce reductions. Without the redundancy provisions, part of which were covered by IAI's Government owner, the result still shows an underlying improvement of more than $20 million.

Sales revenues remained sluggish at $1.44 billion, but were helped by a 3% growth in exports, which now, account for nearly 80% of business. The group also signed up $1.45 billion in new orders, to bring the year-end backlog to $2.5 billion.

Reacting to the crisis in Israeli military markets over the past two years, IAI has shed at least 2,400 jobs and reorganised the group into four independent divisions (Flight International, 4-10 May, 1994).

Source: Flight International