Andrea Rothman Paris
EADS has doubled its dividend payout and predicted earnings would surge this year with its Airbus aircraft division increasing production and demand for commercial helicopters rebounding.
Earnings before interest, tax and one-time items would lift above e2.5 billion (R24.9bn) in 2012, from e1.8bn last year, the pan-European company said in a statement yesterday.
Sales gained 7 percent to e49.1bn last year, with the company projecting an increase of more than 6 percent this year.
Airbus, the source of two-thirds of EADS’s revenue, delivered 534 planes last year and is targeting 570 handovers in 2012 as airlines seek newer, more fuel-efficient planes to counter rising fuel prices.
EADS said 2012 would bring challenges such as maintaining a “tightening schedule” on its new A350 wide-body aircraft, as chief executive Louis Gallois was preparing to hand the reins to Airbus chief executive Tom Enders.
“It’s clear profits at Airbus will be much higher two to three years from now,” Agency Partners analyst Nick Cunningham said. The agency has a buy rating on EADS. “It’s mechanical; A380 costs drop off, and as revenues rise steeply, research and development costs won’t go up so sharply, so margins will expand.”
EADS agreed to pay a dividend of 45 euro cents, more than doubling the payout from last year. The stock jumped 7.3 percent to e28.80 in early Paris trade yesterday, for a market value of e22bn.
Airbus announced plans to lift production rates of its wide-body A330 to 11 a month from nine, as the model benefits from slower than anticipated deliveries of Boeing’s 787.
The company, based in Paris and Munich, said profit growth in 2012 would be sustained by volume increases at Airbus and the Eurocopter chopper division, better pricing at Airbus, and as costs for producing the A380 super-jumbo plane came under better control.
Airbus delivered 26 of the world’s largest passenger jet in 2011 and aims to lift that number to about 30 this year.
The A380 recently had to grapple with wing cracks that stemmed from a construction defect. The company is in the process of fixing the components and changing future production methods for the wings. – Bloomberg