Airbus engine maker Safran profit rises 4.6%
"We met and even surpassed all our targets," said CEO Jean-Paul Herteman
PARIS (AFP) - French aircraft engine maker Safran, which supplies Airbus and Boeing, posted a 4.6 percent rise in adjusted profit to 1.25 billion euros ($1.42 billion) last year, the company said Wednesday.
"We met and even surpassed all our targets," said Jean-Paul Herteman, who plans to step down after seven years as CEO in the spring.
He said that if it were not for an exceptional gain the previous year the firm would have scored a 17 percent profit increase.
The 2013 net profit included a capital gain of 131 million euros after it sold its stake in Ingenico, a French-based company specialising in secure electronic transactions, for 131 million euros.
For 2014 the firm s non-adjusted net income was actually a loss of 126 million euros because of a charge of 1.9 billion euros to account for the euro s decline against the dollar in the past year.
Safran s share price surged 3.55 percent to 63.08 euros in mid-afternoon trading Wednesday on the Paris Bourse that was otherwise mainly flat.
"The order book has reached a record size... and profitability has increased 17 percent thanks to production rhythms never before reached," Herteman told a news conference.
The company received orders totalling 23 billion euros last year, and outstanding orders currently total 64 billion euros, he said.
Herteman said Safran would benefit from "sustained demand in new aircraft for commercial aviation and the growing maturity" of its civilian aircraft engine manufacturing unit.
