Bombardier Inc. CEO Éric Martel is starting to eye acquisitions in aircraft services and defence, as demand for its business jets continues to boom and a once-towering debt load comes back to earth.
Second-quarter revenue rose six percent year-over-year to US$2.15 billion, the Montreal-based company said. Nearly a third of that total stemmed from its aftermarket maintenance and repair business, which saw revenue jump 14 percent year-over-year to a record $674 million.
“Organic growth is very solid,” Martel told analysts on a conference call Thursday. “But there are also possibilities for us to do things that we don’t do today on our planes and have more penetration into the maintenance market.
“The best way for us to get there could be by acquisition ... Clearly there’s possibilities out there that we are considering,” he said.
“Same thing, I would say, in defence,” Martel added. “We'll look at M&A opportunities.”
Overall demand remains strong. The manufacturer’s backlog of private plane orders jumped 25 percent over the past six months to hit $21.8 billion as of June 30.
Bombardier also reduced its net debt by more than US$350 million during the second quarter, Martel said. It brought down its net leverage ratio to 1.6 times—below three is generally considered a healthy debt level.
Meanwhile, activity among the world’s fleet of roughly 24,000 business jets has ramped up. The planes are flying five percent more than last year on average, according to Martel. Even more so with Bombardier’s two main aircraft.
“The Challenger is seven percent up, the Global is up eight percent,” he said, stressing the opportunities for servicing as well as new plane sales, given that appetite for exclusive air travel.
“People are flying more and more private,” Martel said. “The demand is there.”
Last week, Bombardier snagged a provisional order for up to 60 jets from The Helicopter Co. in Saudi Arabia.
Backed by that country’s sovereign wealth fund, the private helicopter firm and Bombardier signed a letter of intent for 12 planes and the option to buy 48 more, including the mid-size Challenger 3500, long-range Global 5500 and ultra-long-range Global 8000.
Opportunities are popping up on the defence front as well, though longer-term.
Earlier this month, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the alliance is looking to work with Swedish manufacturer Saab on up to 10 radar jets built largely in Canada.
Rutte told an audience at the NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey, that its aging fleet is to be replaced by the GlobalEye system, which combines Saab technology with Bombardier’s Global 6500 business jet.
“Defence takes a longer time. We’re not going to deliver those planes this year. But it gives us so much confidence for the future,” Martel said Thursday.
Purchases from military clients also feed Bombardier’s maintenance and repair business. Last month, Bombardier signed a 10-year deal with the Swedish Armed Forces to service two new Global 6500s to be used for “head-of-state transport,” among other missions.
On Thursday, Bombardier reported a profit of US$191 million for the three months ended June 30, down one percent from a year earlier.
The company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, notched adjusted earnings of US$2.50 per share in its latest quarter, up from US$1.11 per share from last year and far exceeding analysts’ expectations of US$1.41 per share, according to financial markets firm LSEG Data & Analytics.
Bombardier reported 32 aircraft deliveries in the second quarter, down from 36 over the same period last year, a decrease that chief financial officer Bart Demosky said was “attributable mainly to timing.”
