By Tim Hepher
PARIS (Reuters) -France’s Thales reaffirmed full-year targets as it posted nine-month sales up 6.2% on an underlying basis, with its new order intake rising 23% led by defence and security demand.
Sales for the first nine months reached 14.07 billion euros ($15.20 billion) and new orders rose to a better-than-expected 15.55 billion, Europe’s largest defence electronics supplier said.
Analysts were on average expecting nine-month revenues of 14.04 billion euros and new orders of 15.26 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus.
New orders included a 40% rise in orders for the Defence and Security division, including systems for the French Army’s SCORPION armoured vehicles programme and lightweight LMM precision missiles ordered by Britain on behalf of both Ukraine and the replenishment of its own stocks. Thales said it had also won an order to renew the air traffic control system of a European nation it did not identify. Chief Financial Officer Pascal Bouchiat said roughly stable third-quarter sales in Digital Identity and Security had fallen short of the company’s hopes for growth, citing lower banking demand especially in the United States. Thales said it had seen low-single digit growth of revenues in the space business on a comparable basis. The company is in talks with unions over plans announced earlier this year to cut 1,300 positions in its loss-making space activities, including around 1,000 in France. “We want to proceed with our plans to lower our structural costs in this activity especially in telecommunications, which continues to suffer lower demand,” Bouchiat told reporters. He declined to comment on reports of merger talks involving satellite activities of Airbus, Thales and Leonardo in the face of growing low-cost private competition. Airbus last week announced 2,500 space-related job cuts. Bouchiat said Thales had not seen any direct impact from an ongoing strike at Boeing though the installation of in-flight entertainment systems was facing some pressure from slower aircraft and seat deliveries in the fourth quarter.
($1 = 0.9258 euros)
(Reporting by Tim Hepher;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
