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24 April 26. Saab presents the results for January-March 2026.
“We delivered strong organic sales growth, a higher operating margin, and solid cash flow in the first quarter. Our product offering is well aligned with the defence priorities of many nations globally. We continue to develop future capabilities and invest in capacity while reinforcing our ability to deliver to customers in the immediate term,” says Micael Johansson, President and CEO, Saab.
Key highlights Q1 2026
- Order bookings in the first quarter amounted to SEK 18,243m (19,144). Growth was strong for medium-sized orders, but fewer large orders were received in the quarter.
- Sales amounted to SEK 19,164m (15,792) which corresponded to an organic sales growth of 23.6% (10.9).
- All business areas and Combitech reported double-digit sales growth, with particularly strong development in Surveillance.
- EBITDA amounted to SEK 2,731m (2,140) corresponding to an EBITDA margin of 14.3% (13.6).
- EBIT increased 32% and amounted to SEK 1,920m (1,454), corresponding to an EBIT margin of 10.0% (9.2).
- Net income increased to SEK 1,466m (1,277) and earnings per share amounted to SEK 2.65 (2.35).
- Operational cash flow increased to SEK 1,017m (-14).
- Net liquidity amounted to SEK 3,985m compared to SEK 3,989m at year-end 2025.
- The AGM 2026 decided on a dividend of SEK 2.40 (2.00) per share for the financial year 2025.
- (Source: PR Newswire)
20 Apr 26. Acorn Capital Management (“Acorn”), a private equity firm investing exclusively in the aerospace, defense, intelligence, and space sectors, today announced an agreement whereby it will acquire a majority interest in MTI Aviation (“MTI” or the “Company”), a leading provider of repair, overhaul and parts distribution services, with a primary focus on electro-mechanical, hydraulics, pneumatics, and power generation components. MTI serves a diverse global customer base, including commercial airlines, maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO) providers, and aviation parts distributors. The transaction is expected to close in the coming weeks, and MTI will be the first platform investment in Acorn’s Fund VI.
MTI’s founder and CEO Jorge Mejia will remain a significant shareholder and continue to lead the Company.
“MTI represents a compelling platform aligned with our strategy of investing in highly differentiated aerospace and defense businesses with strong growth potential,” said Greg Agnew, Partner at Acorn Capital Management. “The Company has established an attractive market position with high-quality customer relationships, technical capabilities, a proven track record of execution, and a sterling reputation in the industry. We look forward to partnering with Jorge and the MTI team to support the Company’s next phase of growth.”
The partnership will provide MTI with access to increased resources and capital to accelerate expansion initiatives and augment its strong growth profile. The Company intends to pursue both organic growth opportunities and targeted add-on acquisitions to further enhance its capabilities and expand its global footprint.
“This partnership marks an exciting new chapter for MTI,” said Jorge Mejia, Founder and CEO of MTI Aviation. “Acorn brings deep industry knowledge and a shared vision for growth. With Acorn’s support, we believe MTI is well-positioned to build on its strong foundation and continue delivering high-quality solutions to customers worldwide.”
Rick Nagel, Acorn’s Managing Partner, said “We have been looking for the right platform investment in the component repair and overhaul sector to complement our other more parts-focused portfolio companies that operate in the aviation aftermarket. MTI is the ideal investment for Acorn given its high-quality operations, as well as strong corporate culture. We are excited to see what Jorge and his team can achieve with great resources behind them.”
Terms of the proposed transaction were not disclosed.
(Source: PR Newswire)
21 Apr 26. Airbus has entered into an agreement for the acquisition of the French cyber-security company Quarkslab. This planned investment is another step of Airbus’ strategy to reinforce its position as a trusted, sovereign partner for French authorities, while strengthening its presence in the European cybersecurity landscape. Closing of the transaction is subject to consultation with social partners as well as customary regulatory approvals, and is expected in the course of 2026. In less than a month, this is the second acquisition agreement in the field of cyber-security signed by Airbus Defence and Space.
Quarkslab is a privately-owned French cybersecurity company founded in 2011, with approximately 100 employees, primarily based in Paris and Rennes. Since 2020, the firm has been backed by Tikehau Capital, a global alternative asset manager. The company delivers cyber security solutions to help organisations protect critical assets, data, and users from cyberattacks. It also markets QShield, a comprehensive solution for software providers, to protect software against AI threats, safeguard data, secrets and code and to secure edge components, namely in the defence and aerospace industries, from being reverse engineered by attackers or AI.
“ Quarkslab’s deep expertise and team are expected to join the fast-growing cyber activities within Airbus Defence and Space and to reinforce a resilient, sovereign cyber player in France and across Europe,” said François Lombard, Head of Connected Intelligence business unit at Airbus Defence and Space. “ This acquisition will strengthen our ability to build the digital shield required to help keep our home nations and allies ahead in the cyber-security domain.”
Fred Raynal, CEO and Founder of Quarkslab, said “By going back to my roots at Airbus, where I first started professionally in cyber, I hope to extend the reach of Quarkslab. Europe needs stronger actors, and I believe Airbus is one of the few able to help us to scale for critical infrastructures and governments.”
Through the deep expertise of its in-house QLab team, combined with the security solution QShield, Quarkslab provides tailored solutions that help protect the government and private sector from increasingly sophisticated attacks. Its cyber-security engineers and developers focus on research and development and foster innovation by creating a junction between academic research and concrete practice. Being already an Airbus supplier and partner, Quarkslab will complement Airbus’ existing French sovereign capabilities of its cybersecurity business.
This move follows the successful acquisition of Infodas in Germany in 2024 and the planned acquisition of Ultra Cyber Ltd in the UK announced in March 2026, which strengthened Airbus’ European sovereign capabilities of its cybersecurity business. Today, Airbus Defence and Space operates a truly pan-European cyber activity across France, the UK, Germany, Spain and Finland. They secure complex digital systems and networks that Airbus Defence and Space delivers to its customers, as well as provide critical customers, primarily governments, armed forces and institutions, with cybersecurity expertise and products.
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Ultra-high precision, modularity and speed to defeat dynamic targets
OpenWorks is a provider of modular autonomous vision systems that deliver ultra-high performance real-time detection, identification and tracking of highly dynamic aerial threats at long range.
Our specialist capability lies in our dynamic positioners, EO/IR optical units, approach to sensor fusion and common interface that enables the integration of third-party detectors, classifiers, interceptors and effectors. Artificial intelligence modules work seamlessly with primary detectors and C2 to provide comprehensive detection, identification, tracking and slewing-to-cue against complex backgrounds and foregrounds.
OpenWorks is internationally and operationally proven across C-UAS and Air Defence.
Vision Pace
Designed to enhance dynamic multi-threat engagement, Vision Pace offers microradian precision targeting to kinetic defeat chains, marking a step-change for layered air defence. The development is intended to provide capability to expeditionary force protection, GBAD, SHORAD, M-SHORAD across land and naval domains.
Vision Flex
Vision Flex provides the highest performance surveillance, tracking and classification capability available, for use on static, mobile and un-crewed systems. Vision Flex cameras are highly configurable and can be used with built-in twin-AI modules of third Party classifiers and trackers.
Vision Flex is easy to integrate through standard interfaces and has a range of plug-and-play optical modules and upgrades to allow it to be configured easily to suit each mission or site.
Vision Guard
Vision Guard is a highly configurable, autonomous, portable and deployable platform that provides automated alerts with AI detection and classification.
It can be configured with combinations of active and/or passive sensors to suit the mission. Detections and alerts are streamed out to a handheld tablet or other systems via the standard interface, SAPIENT, Asterisk etc.
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