12 Jan 10. In a joint New Year’s press conference on the 2009 business highlights, EADS and Airbus formally kicked-off 2010, the year in which the Group celebrates its 10th anniversary, Airbus its 40th. In ten years, EADS developed into one of the world’s top aerospace and defence companies. “Over the last decade, EADS has shown how successful European industrial integration can be” said Louis Gallois, CEO of EADS. “During this period, the Group created 15,000 jobs in Europe. And in 2009 alone, we had the first flight of A400M and EC175; delivered the 200th Eurofighter combat aircraft and the Ariane launcher celebrated its
30th anniversary. Which other company has so much to offer during one year?” In 2009, EADS demonstrated resilience in a difficult market environment: estimated sales for 2009 amount to € 41.7bn. “Clearly, 2009 was not an easy year. But thanks to a broad portfolio, increasing defence and institutional business and a solid net cash position, we have protected our capacity to grow and innovate,” said Gallois. “Now we have to clear the uncertainty over the A400M programme. With the Nations, we need to solve the issue no later than end of January. It is our common interest to secure the future of an aircraft which is already flying and which represents an outstanding potential for Europe in terms of technology and operational capacities”.
Astrium achieved strong growth in 2009 thanks to a number of important contract wins and deliveries. Highlights include a € 4bn order from Arianespace to produce 35 Ariane 5 PB launchers, a € 500m contract from SES ASTRA for four multi-purpose telecommunication satellites, and various contract wins for Earth Observation (EO) satellites. Ariane 5 completed seven launches in 2009, confirming its position as the world’s most reliable space launcher with 35 successful launches in a row.
Revenues at Defence & Security (DS) remained roughly stable in 2009. The Division was able to secure contracts of strategic relevance. The Eurofighter partner nations awarded the Tranche 3a contract for 112 aircraft, which strengthened the Division’s leading role in the global combat aircraft market. DS was awarded the border security program covering the full borders of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. With this contract, DS fostered its top spot as Lead Systems Integrator for Global Security projects. Helicopter deliveries at Eurocopter in 2009 were overall solid and almost at 2008 peak level. While the defence and governmental business continued to be strong, Eurocopter’s commercial business witnessed a significant slowdown in orders. In December, the Division performed the maiden flight of the EC175 civil helicopter and expects to sell as many as 800 of this new generation aircraft in the future. At the end of 2009, Eurocopter’s order backlog stood robust at around 1,300 helicopters. (Source: FT.com)
15 Jan 10. Qinetiq issued its second profit warning in as many months on Friday, saying that it would not experience the traditional boost to second-half sales this year, as it named a new chairman to replace incumbent John Chisholm. “The board now believes that the normal trading pattern of a seasonally stronger second-half performance will not occur in the current financial year,” the group said in a trading statement. “As a result, the group’s performance in the second half is expected to be broadly similar to that of the first half.” This would mean that revenue would be no more than the £806m the group reported in the six months to September 2009. Last year the weighting of revenue between the first half and second half was roughly 45 per cent to 55 per cent. Shares in Qinetiq fell more than 10 per cent to 146p in early London trading. At the end of November the group had said that uncertainty over US policy in Afghanistan and poor visibility on contracts from the UK government meant it would fall short of its full-year profits forecast, prompting analysts to downgrade their full-year for