Airbus quarterly profit falls to half on industrial costs, space charge

Europe's Airbus reported sharply lower second-quarter profits on Tuesday as the cost of investing in higher jetliner production, coupled with largely pre-announced charges in its Space Systems business, outweighed higher revenue.

The world's largest planemaker said adjusted operating profit fell by more than half to 814 million euros ($879.7 million) in the quarter as revenue edged up to 15.995 billion euros.

It also took a charge of 989 million euros on forward losses in its space business, slightly higher than the estimate of about 900 million euros it gave with a profit warning last month.

Profits still came above analysts estimates, who were on average expecting second-quarter adjusted operating income of 699 million euros on revenue of 15.822 billion euros, according to a survey compiled by the company.

The charges bring to just under 1.6 billion euros the amount written off Airbus's balance sheet in just over five months to reflect a new audit of potential losses on key communications and navigation satellite in its troubled Space Systems business.

"We are addressing the root causes of these issues," Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said in a results statement.

Industry sources say much of the newly identified risk is accumulated in the OneSat satellite project and EGNOS, a system designed to improve accuracy of existing navigation signals.

Airbus is working on a review of space activities as it discusses potential alliances with France's Thales and Italy's Leonardo, and meanwhile plans to announce a new turnaround plan for Space Systems in September, Reuters reported on Monday.

It has also launched an expanded cost containment plan for the wider Defence and Space division, accelerating and deepening existing cost measures, industry sources said.

Announcing its own mid-year results on Tuesday, Leonardo confirmed talks with its existing partner Thales and with Airbus over possible alliances in the space sector. Europe most likely needs a stronger structure to compete with the United States and China, Leonardo CEO Roberto Cingolani told analysts.

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