Rolls-Royce expects 'mitigating actions' to offset tariff hit

(Sharecast News) - Rolls-Royce reported a "strong" start to the year and said that it expected to be able to offset the hit from US trade tariffs. In a trading update issued ahead of its AGM, the engineer's chief executive officer, Tufan Erginbilgic, said that the company was taking "mitigation actions" with respect to the tariffs.

It was also closely monitoring their potential indirect impact on economic growth and inflation.

"Good progress on our transformation and the actions we are taking give us confidence in our guidance for 2025 of £2.7bn-£2.9bn of underlying operating profit and £2.7bn-£2.9bn of free cash flow," he added.

All divisions were performing well, the engineer said, describing demand across the group's products as "strong".

Among other highlights, in Civil Aerospace, LTSA large engine flying hours were said to have reached 110% of their 2019 levels.

The company also announced that certification of the new HPT blade for its Trent 1000 engines, which would double the 'time on wing' of the engine, was expected in the coming weeks.

A further 30% improvement for time on wing for the Trent 1000 and 7000 engines was anticipated by the end of 2025.

Demand remained robust in Defence and in Power Systems the book-to-bill ratio stood at 1.5, helped by continued demand for back-up power generators for data centres.

Rolls Royce SMR meanwhile was looking forward to a decision on its tender by Great British Nuclear in June.

The company had thus far carried out £138m of share buybacks under its £1bn authorisation.

Shares of Rolls Royce were trading 2.42% higher as of 772.80p.