Rolls-Royce is forecasting lower pre-tax profits in its civil aerospace division for 2015, as volume growth is offset by adverse effects such as launch pricing.
The engine manufacturer expects pre-tax profits of £800-900 million ($1.2-1.4 billion) compared with the improvement to £942 million achieved last year.
It is predicting full-year revenues will rise from £6.8 billion to around £7-7.3 billion, assisted by Trent XWB and Trent 1000 sales and “good growth” in aftermarket revenues. The Trent XWB powers the Airbus A350, the first delivery of which took place at the end of 2014.
Rolls-Royce delivered 739 civil engines during 2014, down slightly on the year before. The value of its order book rose by 5% to £63.2 billion, with a net order intake of £11.7 billion.
Ramp-up of Trent 1000 engine production for the Boeing 787 contributed strongly to an 8% growth in original equipment revenues. The 12% improvement in civil aerospace underlying profit resulted from higher volume and better aftermarket margins, says the company.
Improved retrospective support contracts under its TotalCare programme contributed to the profitability last year.
But this will not repeat “at similar levels” this year, says Rolls-Royce, while the manufacturer also expects to deliver fewer Trent 700 and Trent 900 engines for the A330 and A380 programmes.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
