ROLLS-ROYCE has raised its full-year profit forecast after reporting a 46 per cent rise in first-half operating profit, helped by improved performance in the civil aircraft aftermarket and higher demand in its defence business.
The British engineering company said it now expects underlying operating profit of £4.7bn to £4.9bn for the full year, compared with its earlier forecast of £4.0bn to £4.2bn.
The revised outlook was well above analysts' expectations. Before Thursday's results, analysts had forecast underlying operating profit of £4.2bn, according to a company-supplied poll.
Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said the company's transformation programme continued to deliver results, with operational and strategic progress during the first half.
"In Civil Aerospace, where we continued to improve our aftermarket profitability, we have also effectively eliminated aircraft on ground, providing a significant operational benefit to our customers," he said.
"In Defence, we continued to establish our leading position in autonomous propulsion with several key milestones achieved in the period."
Erginbilgic added that the company's power systems business benefited from demand from data centres.
Higher profitability across all of its divisions helped Rolls-Royce report underlying operating profit of £2.5bn for the first half.
(With inputs from Reuters)
