Leonardo, accounts up in the quarter. Cingolani: 'Excellent results'

Leonardo's adi, Roberto Cingolani, bids farewell to the group - at the helm of which the shareholders' meeting convened for tomorrow will make official the succession with Lorenzo Mariani, currently managing director of Mbda Italia, flanked by Francesco Macrì as chairman - with a quarterly report of strong growth, confirming the excellent state of health of the company based in Piazza Monte Grappa, with a significant jump in orders (to 9 billion, 31% more than in the same period of 2025), with the overall portfolio rising to 56.8 billion (+23% on the previous year) and a book to bill - another litmus test of the company's profitability that quantifies the ratio between orders received and turnover - of 2.0x.

As for the other indicators, the accounts for this first part of the year closed with an adjusted net profit up by 60 per cent to EUR 184 million, an EBITDA up by 33.2 per cent to EUR 281 million, and ROS (the indicator that measures profitability on sales) rising from 5.1 to 6.3 per cent in the first three months of this year. Revenues also rose, reaching €4.4 billion (+6.9%), thanks to the significant increase in all business sectors, despite the exchange rate effect connected to the American subsidiary Leonardo Drs in the Defence Electronics sector (net of which, it should be emphasised, the percentage increase was 10%).

Free operating cash flow (Focf), which was negative for EUR 411 million, also improved by 29% compared to the first quarter of 2025 (when the bar was negative for EUR 580 million), proving the goodness of the initiatives to strengthen operating performance and working capital management implemented by management, which mitigated the usual seasonal impact of cash absorption that characterises the first part of the year in company management.

Turning to indebtedness, which amounted to €3.05 billion and increased compared to €2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2025 (+43.5%, while at the end of 2025 the bar had stood at just over a billion), the outlay incurred by the group to acquire the Iveco Defence Vehicles (Idv) business for €1.6 billion, the remaining 35% of Gem Elettronica and 100% of Enterprise Electronics Corporation (Eec), carried out through the subsidiary Leonardo Us Corporation, weighed heavily. An impact, the company explained in the press release issued before the opening of the Italian Stock Exchange, which was partly mitigated by the positive performance of the Focf.

In short, Cingolani leaves his successor a 'dowry' of a solid company with numbers that the outgoing CEO describes as 'excellent'. All the main economic-financial indicators, comments the number one of the former Finmeccanica, "show significant progress, confirming the effectiveness of the commercial and operational actions implemented by the group and the integrated technological strategy at the basis of the industrial plan," adds the top manager, who also lines up further milestones recently achieved by the company.