The Thales group registered a record inflow of orders in 2022, 18% more, to 23.6 billion euros, driven by its defense activities in a context of increasing military budgets, the French group announced on Wednesday. The group’s total order book thus amounted to 41,000 million euros at the end of 2022.
The company, also present in civil aeronautics, satellites, cybersecurity and biometric documents, published a turnover of 8.5% to 17,600 million euros, and a consolidated net profit of 3% to 1,120 million euros. Adjusted for accounting items related in particular to capital losses from disposals or amortization of goodwill, net profit increased by 14% to 1,560 million euros. Operating profit increased by 17.3% to 1,940 million euros.
A limited effect of the war in Ukraine
For Thales CEO Patrice Caine, “commercial dynamics are very strong in all of our businesses.” Of the 29 “large” contracts, that is to say the “more than 100 million euros” in the Thales nomenclature, 16 are for defense. This includes the mega-contract linked to the supply of 80 Rafale combat aircraft to the United Arab Emirates for 14,000 million euros -Thales supervises 22% of the value of the aircraft-, 6 Rafale to Indonesia and another 6 to Greece, but also radars. , radio systems or ammunition.
In total, defense, which represented 52% of the group’s turnover (+6%) in 2022, saw its order intake grow by 25%, to 14,000 million euros. Defense activities make up three quarters of Thales’ €41 billion order book. However, the effect of the war in the Ukraine has been limited, according to Patrice Caine. “There were orders taken directly related to this unfortunate conflict but reported to the group, they are not material,” he explained during a conference call.
Advances in space activities and rebound in civil aeronautics
The group’s other activities are not far behind: the turnover of digital identity and security (DIS) activities, carried out quickly after orders, increased by 21%, to 3,618 million euros. Orders for the Aerospace division increased by 5%, to €5.9bn, driven by space activities, in particular orders for geostationary telecommunication satellites (5 contracts of more than €100m won in 2022).
Civil aeronautics, plunged into an abyss during the Covid-19 pandemic, has also rebounded, registering two contracts worth more than 100 million euros, “the first since 2019”, specifically for the supply of entertainment systems to board to equip Emirates. future fleet of Boeing 777X.
Source: BFM TV
