LONDON: Rolls-Royce feared its sales would plunge this year and possibly in 2015 again due to delay in orders as sanctions over the Ukraine crisis stall Russian contracts.
Shares of London-based Rolls-Royce, the world’s second-biggest maker of aircraft engines, plummeted as much as 16 percent to drop revenue by 3.5 to 4 percent in 2014, with free cash flow dwindling to about 350 million pounds ($564 million), or less than half the figure previously anticipated.
The company said customers of its nuclear, energy and power systems businesses have delayed or cancelled orders.
“Since our interim results, the economic outlook for 2015 has become more challenging,” the company said.
However, Rolls-Royce expected underlying profit in its civil aerospace division to be higher than previously thought.
Rolls-Royce, which has 12,000 employees in the East Midlands, said the sale of its gas turbine and compressor business to Siemens was likely to be concluded “by the year end”.
