The Board of Directors of Finmeccanica, convened under the chairmanship of Gianni De Gennaro, examined and unanimously approved the Interim Financial Report at 31 March 2015.
The first quarter of 2015 confirmed the positive developments already reported in the 2014 Annual Report, with results significantly above those posted in the first quarter of last year and surpassing expectations. More specifically, Finmeccanica reported:
– improved profitability, with EBITA up 11% on first quarter 2014;
– positive net result (net loss of €mil. 12 in 2014), even excluding the contribution of the Group’s operations in the Transportation sector (object of an agreement with Hitachi at the end of February as an avenue for the Group to exit such business);
– net use of cash (which is normal for the first few months of the year) much better than in the past.
This performance, along with the agreement with Hitachi in the Transportation sector mentioned above (for which the activities towards the closing are proceeding) appears to be consistent with the development targets and reinforcement efforts set out in the 2015-2019 Industrial Plan, presented to the market in January. Within this framework, Finmeccanica is continuing to make improvements, consistent with the new organisational and operating model, which envisages transforming Finmeccanica from a holding company that manages a number of legally distinct operating companies into a single company that, using a division-based structure, will be able to fuse their industrial profiles with its own direction and control activities. The integration process should be completed throughout the remainder of 2015.
To be more specific, the results for the first quarter of 2015 (which no longer include the contribution of the operations in the Transportation sector transferred under the aforementioned agreement, which have been separately classified among discontinued operations) show:
– New orders: amounted to EUR 2,641 million, above expectations and essentially in line with the first quarter of 2014, that benefitted from significant orders in the Helicopters sector, from the UK Defence Ministry, and in the Aeronautics segment.
– Order backlog: amounting to EUR 30,169 million, ensures about two and a half years of equivalent production for the Group.
– Revenues: amounted to EUR 2,654 million, +4% compared to first quarter 2014.
– EBITA: positive EUR 157 million, significantly improved (+11%) compared to positive 141 million of first quarter 2014. ROS higher by 6% on average in the core sectors.
– EBIT: positive EUR 110 million, compared to positive 101 million of first quarter 2014.
– Net result before extraordinary transactions (without considering the activities of the Transportation sector under disposal): positive EUR 4 million, compared with negative 15 million in first quarter 2014.
– Net result: positive EUR 11 million, compared with negative 12 million of first quarter 2014.
– Group net debt including discontinued operations: amounted to EUR 4,871 million, improved by 190 million compared to 5,061 million at 31 March 2014. The increase, in comparison with EUR 3,962 million at 31 December 2014, was essentially due to the negative effect of the cash flows of the period, reflecting the typical seasonality in the Group’s performance.
– Free Operating Cash Flow (FOCF): negative EUR 880 million, improved by 202 million compared to negative 1,082 million of first quarter 2014 and above expectations.
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