Positive results

Rolls-Royce has announced its 2009 half-year results, reporting a £2bn order book increase for the first half of the year.

The aero-engine maker secured orders worth £7.9bn in the six months leading up to June, increasing the order book to £57.5bn, a four per cent improvement from this time last year.

The results also show that revenues for the first half of the year have risen by 27 per cent to £5.1bn. The company believes this performance was positively impacted by the weakness of sterling against the US dollar and the euro. Rolls-Royce posted an underlying pre-tax profit increase of nine per cent to £445m.

The positive results will help bolster the company’s plans for growth in the UK. Rolls-Royce recently announced it would develop four new UK facilities for discs, military fan blades, single crystal castings and civil nuclear components at a total cost of around £300m. A new civil wide chord fan blade facility will be constructed in Singapore to complement an existing capability at Barnoldswick in the UK.