Finmeccanica's board of directors approves the accounts for 2014, the year of the turnaround: the company beats analysts' expectations and returns to profit. In fact, Finmeccanica ended the year with results higher both than forecasts and compared to the previous year, with particular reference to the profitabilitywhich recorded a growth of more than 20% in terms of Ebita and more than 700 million euros in terms of Ebit and ordinary net result, equal to 70 million euro from -649 million in 2013.
Net income, on the other hand, decreased to 20 million euros from 74 million in 2013, given that however it had benefited from the profits deriving from the disposal of Ansaldo Energy and the motor activities of Avio for a total of 723 million. A trend to which is added a positive trend in the first few months of this year, thanks also to the reaching of the agreement, last February 24, with Hitachi for the sale of the transport sector which in recent years had heavily affected Finmeccanica's results.
For such activities Finmeccanica will collect a consideration of 810 million euros, subject to price adjustment mechanisms, with a reduction in the group's net debt that can be preliminarily estimated at 500 million, to which will be added further benefits deriving from the deconsolidation of the higher debt that these activities would have generated this year, for an additional 100 million. At the moment the net borrowing it amounted to 3,962 billion, in line with 2013 but below analysts' expectations at 4,086 billion.
In 2014 very good orders, equal to 15.619 million euros, 560 million higher than in 2013 and more than 2 billion higher than the forecasts provided by the same company. Furthermore, the order backlog, amounting to 38.234 million euros, ensures the group coverage of more than two and a half years of equivalent production. As for revenues, they grew by 7,1% to 14.663 million euros.
Despite the confirmation of the 2015 targets and the improved profitability, after the publication of the accounts the company made no reference to the distribution of dividends, which analysts had not expected. Anyway tomorrow morning CEO Mauro Moretti will present the results in London to the financial community. At the moment, the good performance does not warm up the markets: in the mid-afternoon, the Finmeccanica share lost more than 4% in Piazza Affari, 11,13 euro. This morning, before the accounts, Equita reiterated the buy rating and the target price of 12,6 euros on the share, the same opinion as Banca Akros (target price at 13 euros) and Banca Imi (target price at 12 euros) .
