Rolls-Royce reports return to half-year profit

Rolls-Royce has reported a return to pre-tax profit for the first half of its financial year.

The engineering giant, which has its civil aerospace and defence divisions in Derby, said that in the six months to 30 June, the company made pre-tax profits of £1.41 billion – up from losses of £1.75 billion in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, revenue increased from £5.6 billion to £7.52 billion – driven largely by its civil aerospace and defence businesses.

According to chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, the firm’s “multi-year transformation programme” is beginning to play a key role in Rolls-Royce’s performance.

He said: “There is much more to do to deliver better performance and to transform Rolls-Royce into a high performing, competitive, resilient, and growing business.

“Our people are committed, passionate and full of energy. Despite a challenging external environment, notably supply chain constraints, we are starting to see the early impact of our transformation in all our businesses.”

The civil aerospace business is continuing to win new orders – including its biggest ever order of Trent XWB-97 engines, with a Memorandum of Understanding for 68 engines (plus 20 options) for Air India.

The division is also continuing to achieve significant landmarks in its engine programmes, in particular, the UltraFan.

This year, Rolls-Royce successfully completed the first tests of its UltraFan technology demonstrator on Testbed 80 at its Derby site, using 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

It was a historic moment for Rolls-Royce, as it was the first time in 54 years the aero-engine manufacturer had tested a brand-new engine architecture.

The UltraFan has the potential to be a real game-changer for the aviation industry, delivering a 10% efficiency improvement over Rolls-Royce’s Trent XWB, which is already the world’s most efficient large aero engine in service.

Meanwhile, over at Rolls-Royce’s Raynesway site, the firm’s defence business continued to win new work in the first six months of the year – most notably the announcement that the AUKUS submarine programme will be powered by Rolls-Royce nuclear reactors built in Derby.

On the back of this, Rolls-Royce has since announced that it plans to double the size of the Raynesway site, creating almost 1,200 new jobs.

Mr Erginbilgic said: “We have a strong portfolio of products and technologies in growing end markets and have secured key contract wins that will create future value and profitable growth.”