• Increase in sales to new record high
• Results much improved over last year
• Prosperous business development continued in the on-going financial year
The financial year 2012/13 was - according to preliminary figures - a great operative and strategic success for FACC AG, the leading Austrian aerospace supplier. With 433.9 million €sales revenues and an increase of 78.8 million € the business group topped last year’s result (355.1 million €) by 22.2 per cent. This is owed mainly to the strong growth dynamics caused by the rise in the civil aviation business and by the resilience of air transports to crisis.
“Our results in the fiscal year of 2012/13 fully satisfied our expectations. We once more proved that FACC is a solid and successful company with excellent growth perspectives. Without doubt we will have to face challenges in the year of 2013 but with different strategic activities we have already set the signs for growing profitability”, said Walter Stephan, Chief Executive Officer of FACC AG.
The company saw a strong increase in the operative earnings which rose by 11.4 million € from 24.3 million € of the previous year to 35.7 million €.
The annual surplus after taxes and interest (EBITDA) doubled the value of the previous year from 10.0 million € to 20.1 million €.
Development in the divisions over the year of 2012/13
In the financial year 2012/13 the production rates in the aviation industry have sustained their upwards trend from the three previous years thanks to the continued demand of airlines for modern, weight-optimized aircraft as well as engines with increased efficiency.
Division Aerostructures
Thanks to the positive development on the aviation market, the Division Aerostructures realized sales revenues according to plan and even slightly above plan. With sales revenues from serial deliveries to the customer Boeing it was possible to realize a 10% increase over plan, mainly owed to the rising demands in the Boeing 787 program. High demands for the Airbus programs A320, A330 and A380 contributed to the 30 % increase in sales revenues with the customer Airbus. Investments in new projects such as the A350 XWB Spoiler, the A350 XWB Winglets or the Bombardier CSeries Wing-to-body Fairings and a growth in development services are an essential part of the Aerostructures sales revenues and have positive effects on total sales revenues.
The Division Aerostructures booked a 27.1 per cent sales increase up to 219.5 million €.
Division Engines & Nacelles
The Division Engine & Nacelles did stable business in the financial year 2012/13 with remarkably high demand for older programs such as the A320 or the Gulfstream GIV paired with an excellent development of recent projects such as the Rolls-Royce engines Trent 900 and BR725 or the Pratt & Whitney engine PE306/307.
The sales revenues of the Division Engines & Nacelles developed up to 96.2 million €, which is a 25.27 per cent sales growth rate.
Division Interiors
The financial year 2012/13 of the Division Interiors was characterised by a 17 per cent growth rate in the delivery of products compared to the same report period of the previous year. The sales revenues from products for Commercial Jets grew by 12 per cent. Sales revenues from products for Business Jets grew by 27 per cent. This means the sales revenues of both segments are considerably above plan. The strong growth in the Business Jet segment is owed mainly to the increased rates in the Bombardier Challenger 300 program but also to the excellent rates of the Embraer Phenom 300 program. The growth in Commercial Jets on the other hand is owed mainly to the increased rates of the Airbus aircraft families A320 and A380.
The Division Interiors saw a 11.9 per cent sales increase up to 118.2 million
Research activities
FACC in 2012/13 further expanded the key division of Research & Development. The expenses for Research & Development and Engineering grew by 37.5 per cent up to 96.8 million €.
Investments
In line with the long-term plans and caused by the high order volumes of FACC the company made targeted investments to extend the capacity at the Austrian production sites. The investments at the one hand were for the creation of additional production capacities and for technologies for new projects. Essential investments for sustainable fortification of FACC included the set-up of the technology centre at the St. Martin site as well as the development of 4,000 m² additional assembly line space plus the extension of the equipment capacity with two autoclaves, two 5-axis-CNC-milling systems as well as the most advanced measuring and testing systems. The strong investment program will secure the future sales growth of FACC.
Personnel
The dynamic trend in personnel recruitments of recent years was continued through the financial year 2012/13. In total, the 322 additional persons were added to the payroll of workers and employees.
As of February 28, 2013 the total headcount in Austria was 2,269 persons on the payroll (+17%), of which 1,407 persons were workers (+14%) and 862 persons were employees (+22%). On average, FACC employed 2,108 persons. Per due date 155 (+5 %) persons were working for the company in foreign countries abroad.
Plans and outlook for 2012/13
The environment of the aviation industry saw a very positive development in 2012/13 and it was characterised by a new record in the delivery of large aircrafts (+17%). The outlook of FACC is based on the assumption that the aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing according to their forecasts are going to exceed the number of deliveries of aircraft from the previous year again by 5 % in the on-going year. This is mainly owed to the launch of the Boeing 787 deliveries plus increased rates for Airbus A320, Airbus A330, Airbus A380, Boeing 737 and Boeing 777. This rise is caused by the global growth in passenger volumes of more than 4 per cent which takes place regardless of the dampened economic climate, but it is strongly focussed on the regions Asia Pacific, Near East and Africa. Globally most airlines realize profits, and they refurbish their existing fleets more and more to new, more efficient aircraft. The aircraft orders for Duopol Airbus and Boeing in 2012 amount to a total of 2,253 aircraft, which are only slightly beyond the comparable figures of 2011 respectively the figures of the record year of 2007.
In the past financial year, FACC invested heavily in the development of new products for its customers. Especially the participation in the development of the Commercial Jets Boeing 787-9, the Airbus A350 XWB and the Bombardier C-Series are worth mention. In addition to the increased rates of the existing product portfolio, these new projects are going to be responsible for a strong growth of the business volume of FACC in the future. An essential foundation for short-term growth was laid with the development of a new version of Winglets for the Boeing 737NG. With the acceptance of an order for the A320 NEO in the engine section FACC is going to warrant a smooth transition of the aircraft model A320 to the new model range of the A320 series. The order for production of a new landing flap for the A321 is another considerable contribution to sales growth.
The growth in the market for Business Jets which suffered a big crash in 2007 is still lagging expectations. However FACC is going to realize over-proportional growth rates compared to the market in the coming years thanks to several new developments. FACC is also convinced that this segment is going to see a strong reduction of the product lifecycles of the aircraft models, and of course also the interiors used therein. This will provide growing project sales revenues for FACC in the future thanks to the higher volumes of development services.
The order backlog of FACC grew slightly over the report period. For the future development of the business this means with annual sales growth rates of 20 per cent the production sites of FACC will be booked to capacity for at least five years. In order to manage future growth, and to realize the necessary steps of expansion, the company plans to issue a corporate bond.