Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) shares jumped over 10% after the engine maker confirmed that dividends and share buybacks would return this year, but said supply chain issues are preventing it from growing profits even faster.
For 2024, the FTSE 100 group now expects to generate an underlying operating profit of £2.1-2.3 billion and free cash flow between £2.1-2.2 billion, versus an average City analyst forecast of around £2 billion for both.
In the first six months of the year, the company made an underlying profit of £1.1 billion, up 74% on a year earlier as revenue increased 18% to £8.2 billion and commercial improvements and cost-cutting led to the underlying operating margin increasing to 14.0% from 9.6%.
The largest improvement was in Civil Aerospace, which delivered an operating margin of 18.0%, up from 12.4%, driven by higher aftermarket profit from large engine long-term service agreements, stronger performance in business aviation and contractual margin improvements.
Defence and Power Systems also increased operating margins, with Rolls saying "cost efficiency actions have helped to mitigate the impact of inflation".
With net cash flow from operating activities of £1.7 billion, net debt was reduced to £0.8 billion from £1.95 billion at the end of December.
In light of the improvements to profit, cash flow, "making strong progress strengthening the balance sheet and building resilience", the board said it will reinstate shareholder distributions at the time of full-year results, starting with a 30% pay-out ratio of underlying profit after tax, then with an ongoing pay-out ratio of 30-40% each year.
Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic, who has led the turnaround of the company since joining at the start of last year, said: "Our transformation of Rolls-Royce into a high-performing, competitive, resilient, and growing business is proceeding with pace and intensity.
"We are expanding the earnings and cash potential of the business in a challenging supply chain environment, which we are proactively managing. We are on track to deliver our mid-term targets."
The shares flew over 10% higher to 497.4p, hitting a new all-time high above 500p earlier.
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