(News Bulletin 247) – Boeing’s rival revealed revenues and operating income quite clearly above consensus. All of its outlook for 2024 is reiterated.
While this results season does not weaken, Airbus in turn delivers its third quarter accounts. From July to the end of September, Boeing’s rival announced this Wednesday evening that it had generated revenues of 15.69 billion euros, up 5% year-on-year.
In its civil aeronautics division alone, Airbus saw its turnover reach 11.67 billion euros, an increase of 5%. The aircraft manufacturer notably benefited from a slight increase in aircraft deliveries over the period with 174 aircraft delivered compared to 172 a year earlier.
A key measure of the company’s profitability, adjusted operating profit stood at 1.41 billion euros in the third quarter, showing an increase of 39%.
Net profit reached 983 billion euros, up 22%.
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Production target confirmed for the A320 neo family
This time over nine months, free cash flow before customer financing was negative at 845 million euros after a disbursement of 529 million euros in the first half.
The group therefore burned another 316 million euros of cash in the third quarter.
According to a consensus posted online by the company, analysts expected, for the third quarter, revenues of 15.3 billion euros, adjusted operating income of 1.2 billion euros, cash flow before financing of customers of -355 million euros.
Regarding its outlook, Airbus confirmed all of its objectives for 2024. The company plans to deliver around 770 aircraft, generate an adjusted operating profit of around 5.5 billion euros and generate cash flow before customer financing. ‘around 3.5 billion euros.
Jefferies judges that the confirmation of these objectives “should bring relief” to the market, which has feared in recent months that the company would lower them. The bank also judges that the company has achieved “solid” outperformance compared to expectations.
“During the first nine months, demand was strong across our entire product range. Results for this period reflect the level of commercial aircraft deliveries, the strong performance of the helicopter business and the expenses recorded in the first half-year through our space activities,” said Guillaume Faury, executive chairman of Airbus, quoted in a press release;
“We are constantly adapting to the complexity and rapid developments of our operating environment, marked by geopolitical uncertainties and by the specific challenges of our supply chain, which materialized during the year 2024. We are focused on our priorities, in particular the acceleration of commercial aircraft deliveries and the transformation of our Defense and Space division,” added the executive.
Airbus has also confirmed that it is targeting a monthly production rate for its A320 neo single-aisle family, its blockbuster, of 75 aircraft by 2027.
During a conference call with journalists, Chief Financial Officer Thomas Toepfer said the company had estimated the impact of the increase in the corporate tax rate planned by the French government at around 300 million euros. This impact is assessed for the 2024 financial year and would be around half for 2025, said the manager, recalling that this additional tax remains for the moment “a project”.
The market reaction in Paris will be observed on Thursday after 9 a.m. But in the meantime, on Wall Street, the ADR (a product which allows American investors to bet on foreign companies) of Airbus turned upward and jumped 3.2% in the wake of these announcements, this Wednesday evening.
Alongside these announcements, Airbus indicated that it would propose, during its 2025 general meeting, to renew the mandate of Guillaume Faury. Furthermore, Lars Wagner, currently managing director of the German engine manufacturer MTU, was chosen by the group to succeed Christian Scherer at the head of the civil aeronautics division.
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