Lufthansa Group’s engineering unit Lufthansa Technik plans to invest €1.2 billion ($1.31 billion) in the next four years to support its “Ambition 2030” strategic growth plan.
The Hamburg-based MRO unit said on 12 March that after Lufthansa last November scrapped plans to divest a partial stake of the company, it is positioning itself to grow both organically, including building a new facility in Europe, as well as through possible acquisitions.
As if to prove the company’s ability to go it alone, it posted record full-year earnings before interest and tax of €628 million on revenue of €6.5 billion in 2023, 18% higher than the previous year. The figures are in line with pre-pandemic results, the company says.
“We made the best possible use of the past year and made a comeback and found new strength after the debilitating years of the Covid crisis,” Soeren Stark, Lufthansa Technik’s chief executive says. “We want to continue to grow from this position. We still have big plans for Lufthansa Technik and with Ambition 2030 we have developed an ambitious plan that we are in the process of implementing.”
Ambition 2030 plans for the company to almost double its revenue to more than €10 billion and profit to more than €1 billion by the end of this decade. To do that, Stark says the company will focus on its core business, expand its international presence through acquisitions and also expand its digital business models.
“The technical support business for engines and aircraft components will be a disproportionately high growth driver,” he adds.
In 2023, Lufthansa Technik secured 1,000 new contracts with 27 new customers with a contract volume of €8 billion – its second-best sales year ever.
The post-pandemic return of the Airbus A380 and the ensuing business it granted the company “was not expected”, and given the current delivery delays of the world’s two major airframers, “I think we will see the 380 for another five, six, seven years”, he says.
Stark says that much of the growth in the future will come from its core business with civil and commercial operators, but it is also forging ahead with its new defence business.
“We are delighted that we have succeeded in expanding our partnership with the German armed forces, and we also want to do more to support them beyond the Special Air Mission Wing,” Stark says. The company is now also a member of the industrial teams for the Boeing CH-47F Chinook heavy transport helicopter and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter as well.
SCUTTLED DIVESTITURE
On the topic of the scuttled divestiture, Stark paints a nuanced picture of the considerations that led to cancelling those plans. He says Lufthansa did not find a strategic partner willing to both pay the price for a 20-25% share of the company and which would have preserved the culture of both the parent and Lufthansa Technik.
The discussions “got to a point where we said it’s not satisfactory enough to take that step”. Initially, he had concerns about Lufthansa Group’s competing interests, and that Lufthansa Technik’s business cases would lose out to other priorities of the European behemoth.
“In all fairness I have to tell you I haven’t experienced any situation where the Group did not make investments for what we presented,” he says.
The €1.2 billion in mid-term financing “makes me optimistic that if we need additional investments for inorganic growth… I am confident we can get the money”.
ORGANIC GROWTH AND ACQUISITIONS
Stark says that planning is already underway to build another component repair factory in “the southwest of Europe” that will open by 2027. While he does not specify the location further, he says the selection process for a site “is in a decisive phase”.
“I expect that decision will be taken in the next two or three months,” Stark says. “We are on a clear growth course, we need that second site to serve that growth course.”
Some work “will migrate” from the company’s current location in Hamburg, but Stark says new business fields will be added, allowing the Hamburg site, also, to grow.
Overseas, the company is trawling the market for potential acquisitions, as organic growth will not be sufficient to fulfil its ambitious earnings goals.
“We are seriously considering growing inorganically and we have started to intensively screen the Americas, especially North America, for suitable targets,” Stark says. The same applies to the Asia-Pacific region.
“I would assume it’s only a question of months rather than years that we will find a suitable target not only in the Americas but also in APAC,” he adds.
“2023 has shown us that not only are we in a position to face the challenges of the industry as Lufthansa Technik [alone] but also shown that [we] make good use of opportunities we have,” he adds. “In this year and the years to come we are going to continue on the trajectory of positive success.”
