Air Transport

Thales is forecasting a stable, or slightly higher, level of organic growth in 2006, with a booming civil market expected to offset only “slight” increases in European defence budgets. The group posted overall 2005 revenues of €10.3 billion ($12.4 billion), flat on the previous year’s level, representing a 3.8% increase in underlying organic growth after exchange rate and consolidation is taken into account. Net income was up at €334 million, compared with €325 million in 2004. “The group’s ambition, as compared to its current position, is to achieve, by 2008, a 25% growth in revenues, 15% from organic growth and the remainder through acquisitions,” Thales says. The group’s order intake rose in 2005, to €12.8 billion, compared with €9.4 billion the previous year, leaving the group with an order book of €20 billion at the end of the year. Thales’s aerospace division revenues were up at €2.3 billion, €200 million higher than 2004, while air systems revenues edged up from €1.4 billion to €1.5 billion.