Rolls-Royce sees 2011 profit growth

Rolls, the world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines behind US group General Electric Co. said it had continued to make progress since the half year, helped by a continued flow of orders across its businesses.

“For the full year, the board continues to expect good growth in underlying profit ... Rolls-Royce has continued to make progress since the half year, with encouraging order flow from a broad range of global customers,” Rolls-Royce chief executive John Rishton said.

Rolls, which makes engines for planemakers Airbus and Boeing, last month agreed to sell its share of the International Aero Engines (IAE) consortium to UTC’s Pratt & Whitney, its partner in the venture, for $1.5bn (£941.2m). IAE produces engines for Airbus’ A320 plane family.

The company, which recently acquired half of German engineer Tognum, also said it was forming a joint venture with Pratt to develop the next generation of engines for the mid-sized narrow body market. This deal is viewed as a positive move by analysts who forecast that some 20,000 narrow body planes will be produced in the next 20 years.

Mr Rishton said the Tognum deal would add “significantly to the scale of energy and marine opportunities,” while the Pratt agreement was an “important new venture” for the company.