Can you talk us through the main highlights
of the Group’s 2013 financial results?
The most important message is: we are making progress towards our profitability target. While our revenues were up 5% against the previous year, our underlying profitability, the EBIT* before one-off, was up 21% to € 3.6 billion. That represents a return on sales of 6%. So it’s another significant step towards
our target of 7% to 8% by 2015 (see graphs on pages 24-25).
What’s behind the proposed dividend?
It is the result of improved profitability supported by our new dividend policy, which we announced at the end of 2013.
The proposed gross dividend of 75 cents per share represents
a payout ratio of 40% and a 25% increase on the previous
year’s dividend.
How do you see the cash development?
We are currently in a phase of heavy investment in production and development programmes, in particular with the A400M and A350 XWB ramping up. As a result, the free cash flow for the full year was negative. However, it was better than expected some months ago, reflecting a high level of commercial deliveries and a heightened operational focus on cash measures in the last quarter.
Our net cash at the end of 2013 remains a very solid € 9 billion. That’s after taking into account the € 1.9 billion invested in