EADS profit and sales up
February 27, 2013
The European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) announced on Wednesday it booked decent full-year profit last year because of successful operations at its subsidiary Airbus.
EADS said bottom-line profit last year amounted to 1.23 billion euros ($1.61 billion), up 19 percent from its net earnings a year earlier. 2012 revenues climbed to 56.5 billion euros, compared with 49.1 billion euros in 2011.
The aeronautic company said order books continued to be full. Last year alone, new orders were worth 102.5 billion euros, a figure the firm wanted to surpass in the current year.
Raw spots remain
EADS Chief Executive Tom Enders said the company continued its drive to further improve business operations. "There's still a long road ahead of us until we reach our profitability targets," Enders said in a statement.
Following a failed merger with British defense giant BAE Systems, electronics contractor Cassidan remained a headache, the company said. EADS said it took charges of 198 million euros at Cassidan, in part reflecting restructuring costs.
The fall in fourth-quarter earnings was also caused by a 100-million-euro charge at helicopter maker Eurocopter as contracts with government customers had to be renegotiated.
hg/kms (Reuters, AP, dpa)