Rolls-Royce confirms outlook on 'strong' trading

(Sharecast News) - Rolls-Royce reiterated its full-year guidance on Thursday, despite ongoing supply chain pressures. Updating on trading in the 10 months to October end, the aerospace and defence blue chip said it had seen a "strong" performance across the group.

Civil aerospace benefited from significant large orders from IndiGo, Malaysia Airlines and Avolon in the second half, alongside growing demand for the Trent-XWB-97 powered Airbus A350F.

In defence, Rolls-Royce pointed to "robust" demand, while in power systems, revenue growth was led by power generation - driven by data centres - and governments.

Tufan Erginbilgic, chief executive, said: "Strong performance across the group, driven by our actions and strategic initiatives, was in line with our expectations.

"This builds further confidence in our full-year guidance of underlying operating profit of between £3.1bn and £3.2bn, despite continue supply chain challenges.

"We are continuing to progress our transformation programme, delivering profitable growth and further strengthening our balance sheet."

Rolls-Royce also reiterated its target for free cash flow of between £3bn and £3.1bn in the current year.

The firm is due to publish full-year numbers on 26 February. Last year it posted underlying operating profits of £2.5bn on revenues of £17.8bn.