Swedish defence and aerospace group Saab reported a bigger-than-expected rise in operating earnings for the second quarter on Friday as booming demand in its major markets drove a sharp rise in sales and order bookings.
The maker of the Gripen fighter jet said in a statement that operating earnings rose to SEK2.79 billion ($289 million) from SEK1.98 billion a year earlier, beating the SEK2.48 billion mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts, as new orders more than doubled.
Saab, which also makes military equipment ranging from missiles and advanced electronics to submarines, said like-for-like sales rose 29.8 per cent year-on-year and that it remained focused on scaling up capacity to meet the surging demand.
Already riding consecutive years of surging demand driven by rapid rearmament across much of Europe due to Russia's war in Ukraine, the pace has picked up still further for Saab in recent months with a string of huge orders.
Saab, which competes with giants such as US Lockheed Martin, France's Dassault Aviation and Britain's BAE Systems, said order bookings soared 141 per cent year-on-year in the quarter.
Saab is set to produce new Gripen E fighters to Ukraine and could see Brazil adding 20 more of the aircraft to its existing fleet while the company has also inked a $4.8 billion contract with Poland for three A26-type submarines.
Meanwhile, NATO has announced plans to buy Saab's GlobalEye surveillance planes as has Canada.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard, editing by Essi Lehto and Susan Fenton)
