Airbus Group SE said profit would increase this year as it regains control over costs and production challenges from a switch to the latest A320 narrow-body aircraft and increased output of the A350 twin-aisle model.
The company still major faces issues with the delayed A400M military transport, which it yesterday said “remains a concern” following charges of 2.2 billion euros (US$2.3 billion) last year that weighed on net figures.
What should be boom times at Airbus given a record order book have been frustrated by holdups, including a shortage of interior fittings for the A350 and engine glitches with a revamped version of the A320 that caused it to make more lower-margin older airplanes.
CEO Tom Enders is betting that the problem models will get back on track this year, allowing the Toulouse, France-based company to reap the benefits of higher build rates.
“The progress we made last year gives us confidence that we have the building blocks in place to achieve our earnings and cash-flow growth potential,” Enders said in a statement.
De-risking and strengthening the A400M program will also be a top priority for this year, he said.
While a “crisis” concerning the model’s propeller gearbox was addressed with an interim fix, further challenges have emerged concerning the airplane’s military capabilities, causing cash retention by customers to weigh on the program into next year, leaving Airbus to seek talks to cap its exposure.
Airbus shares traded 0.7 percent lower at 66.77 euros as of 9:07am yesterday in Paris after earlier falling as much as 0.9 percent. The stock has advanced 6.3 percent this year.
While group earnings before interest and tax last year fell 3.6 percent to 3.96 billion euros, held back by the stuttering jetliner projects and a weaker performance at defense and helicopter divisions, the figure was marginally ahead of the 3.8 billion euros estimated by analysts.
Airbus also met its goal of achieving positive free cash flow, which totaled 1.4 billion euros, recovering from a negative 4.73 billion euros after the first nine months as the company delivered a mammoth 266 airplanes in the final quarter, or two-fifths of the annual total.
This year’s figure should be similar, before takeovers, disposals and customer financing.
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS