Leonardo booked €23.3 billion in new orders through September, or about €1.50 for every euro of revenue. Orders rose 22.4% excluding Iveco’s defence business, IDV, which added about €6 billion to the backlog after Leonardo acquired it in March.
The backlog represents more than 2.7 years of production, Leonardo said. “We are committed to further strengthening our capabilities to translate our substantial Order Backlog into greater production and delivery capacity, improving process efficiency and programme execution, as required by the current scenario,” said Lorenzo Mariani, Leonardo’s chief executive and general manager.
Revenue rose 14.2% to €15.3 billion, with growth across all business sectors despite an adverse currency impact, mainly at US subsidiary Leonardo DRS. EBITA increased 37.7% to €1.30 billion, led by defence electronics, helicopters and aeronautics, while the return on sales rose to 8.5% from 7%.
Excluding IDV, revenue increased 9% and EBITA rose 29.3%. Adjusted net profit rose 74.2% to €812 million, helped by higher operating earnings and lower net financial expenses.
Leonardo completed its purchase of IDV on 18 March, using about €1.6 billion of available cash to expand its land defence business. The acquisition contributed to a 43.8% rise in net debt from a year earlier to €3.33 billion at the end of September.
Free operating cash flow improved by 84% from a year earlier, though Leonardo still recorded a €68 million outflow. Excluding IDV, the group recorded an inflow of €22 million.
Leonardo left its other full-year forecasts unchanged, including revenue of about €22.1 billion and EBITA of about €2.21 billion, with a double-digit return on sales. It expects free operating cash flow of about €1.37 billion and year-end net debt of about €2.2 billion.
