THALES REPORTS SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENT IN PROFITABILITY
19 Feb 14. The Board of Directors of Thales (NYSE Euronext Paris: HO) met to close the financial statements for 20131. Commenting on the results, Jean-Bernard Lévy, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, said: “In 2013, Thales achieved a substantial improvement in operating profitability and a very strong growth of order intake in emerging countries. These results are a very encouraging first step. Despite a persistently unfavourable environment in Western defence markets, our results confirm our ambition to return to profitable growth, based on competitiveness efforts, a stronger international presence and the mobilisation of a unique set of capacities.”
Key points
• Order intake: €14.17bn, an increase of 7%
• Sales: €14.19bn, stable
• EBIT2: €1,003m, an increase of 8%
• Adjusted net income, Group share2: €644m, up 13%
• Adjusted net income per share2: €3.20, up 12%
• Dividend per share: €1,12, up
27%%
Order intake
New orders booked in 2013 amounted to €14,168m, a 7% increase compared to 2012 (+10% at constant exchange rates and scope). At 31 December 2013, the consolidated order book stood at €29,527m, representing more than two years of sales. The book-to-bill ratio amounted to 1.00 for the full year 2013. 19 significant orders over €100m unit value were registered in 2013 opposed to 101 in 2012. 10 of these major contracts for 2013 are for emerging market customers, compared with 2 in 2012.
• In Aerospace, the Group won several major contracts: in Avionics, a UK A400M aircrew training and simulation service contract and in Space, a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) as prime contractor for the 2016 and 2018 missions of the Exomars scientific programme, as well as several contracts for satellites, including a dual-use communication satellite for Brazil, an observation satellite for an African country and a new tranche of the Meteosat European programme;
• In Transport, two major main line rail signalling orders were signed in South Africa and Egypt;
• In Defence & Security, the Group booked several large orders. In France, it won the second tranche of the Contact software defined radio programme, the Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft renovation and the new F3R standard Rafale (laser targeting pod, electronic systems). In the United Kingdom, Thales was awarded a sensor system support contract for the Royal Navy. In emerging markets, several major contracts were captured in Defence & Security, particularly in the Middle East (Saudi frigates upgrade, air defence radars in the United Arab Emirates, optronics and critical infrastructure security).
Orders with a unit value of less than €10m represent almost half the order intake in terms of value.
New orders in emerging markets recorded a sharp rise (+30%) compared to 2012 at €4,566m and amounted to 32% of total order intake, compared to 26% over the same period in 2012. This growth was particularly significant in the Middle East, where the Group order intake nearly doubled compared to 2012.
New orders for the Aerospace segment amounted to €4,130m, compared to €4,051m in 2012. Excluding the impact due to the disposal of activities in 2012 (civil fixed-wing aircraft simulation and Diehl Aircabin), Avionics order intake remained generally stable, as the continued growth of on-board avionics activities, both original equipment and support, and helicopter avionics compensated lower orders in in-flight entertainment and tubes & imaging businesses (after the high level witnessed in 2012). Space activities saw major growth in orders, particularly in observation and exploration satellites (Exomars, Meteosat and Cosmo-Skymed programmes), whereas the Telecom segment was down, despite the signature of the above-mentioned contract for a dual-use communication satellite in Brazil.
In the Transport segment, new orders amounted to €1,492m, compared to €1,653m in 2012 (durin