Thales, plan to cut 1,300 posts in the Thales Alenia Space jv with Leonardo

Thales has launched a reorganisation plan for Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture with Leonardo in the space sector, which involves cutting 1,300 jobs, 1,000 of them in France, which will be redeployed in the rest of the group. This is what the aerospace group announced, specifying that the reorganisation will take place between 2024 and 2025 in agreement with the trade unions. The jv venture is 66% controlled by Thales and employs around 8600 people. The space segment benefits from favourable growth prospects for many of its activities, in particular observation, exploration, navigation, military telecommunications and services,' reads the group's note on the 2023 accounts. 'However, the commercial telecommunications business is facing challenges due to structural weakness in demand.

Thales ended 2023 with a net profit of EUR 1.023bn, down 9%, which was impacted by exceptional items of £349m due to insurance cover related to employee pension scheme commitments in the UK. Adjusted profit rose 14% to EUR1.768bn and operating profit improved 10.2% to EUR2.132bn (+10.9% organic) on revenues that grew 4.9% to EUR18.4bn. Orders fell by 2% to EUR 23.1 billion (+0.2% organic) bringing the order book to a record level of EUR 45 billion as at 31 December (+4.5 billion year-on-year).
The French group will propose to shareholders the distribution of a dividend of EUR 3.40 per share, up 16% from a year ago.

The guidance for 2024 envisages a book-to-bill (orders taken/turnover) of more than 1 and organic revenue growth of between 4% and 6% in a range of 19.7-20.1 billion. The ebit margin is estimated between 11.7% and 12%. Free cash flow stood at 2.026 billion in 2023, at 115% of adjusted net profit, and is expected to remain close to 100% in 2024.