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Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC on Thursday raised its outlook for all of 2025, saying a strong first half showed ‘our multi-year transformation continues to deliver’, despite supply chain difficulties and trade tariffs. The stock was up 8.3% to 1,070.00 pence early Thursday in London, the top gainer in the FTSE 100 index. The London-based jet engine and power turbine maker reported pretax profit of £4.84 billion, multiplied from £1.42 billion a year before. Pretax profit benefited from a £679 million gain on the deconsolidation of Rolls-Royce SMR Ltd, the company’s small modular reactor business, which constructs mini nuclear reactors and has brought in outside investors. Having been selected as the sole provider of the UK’s first small modular reactor programme, Rolls-Royce SMR is expected to be profitable and free cash flow positive by 2030, the company said on Thursday. The bottom line in the first half also was boosted by £2.09 billion in net financing income, swung from £230 million in net finance costs a year before. Operating profit, which doesn’t include these gains, was £2.07 billion, up 26% from £1.65 billion, as revenue rose 7.1% to £9.49 billion from £8.86 billion. Underlying operating profit was £1.73 billion, up 51% from £1.15 billion. In response, Rolls-Royce raised its guidance for full-year underlying operating profit to between £3.1 billion and £3.2 billion. This will be up at least 24% from £2.5 billion in 2024. Rolls-Royce also guided £3.0 billion to £3.1 billion in free cash flow for 2025, up from £2.4 billion in 2024. This was £1.58 billion in the first half, up from £1.16 billion a year before. ‘We see these targets as a milestone, not a destination, with substantial growth prospects beyond the mid-term,’ Chief Executive Officer Tufan Erginbilgic said of the raised 2025 guidance. He added: ‘Our multi-year transformation continues to deliver. Our actions led to strong first half year results, despite the challenges of the supply chain and tariffs. We are continuing to expand the earnings and cash potential of Rolls-Royce.’ The company declared an interim dividend of 4.5 pence. Rolls-Royce paid no interim dividend in 2024 but paid a 6.0p final dividend. It also noted that it has completed £400 million of its planned £1 billion share buyback planned for 2025. Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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