LONDON - Rolls-Royce, the engine maker, yesterday confirmed that 6,000 jobs will be lost over the next three years and that there will be no earnings growth this year.
However, the company's shares bounced 12 per cent after it reported an 18 per cent rise in underlying pre-tax profit to
£436m for the year 2000.
Rolls-Royce reiterated its view, first delivered in a catastrophic profits warning in August, that earnings would be flat in 2001, before recovering.
However, Sir Ralph Robins, chairman, refused to be specific about the strength of the recovery forecast. "We know what it's going to be, but I'm not going to tell you ... all our markets are growth markets," he said.
The company said that profits would be boosted next year by growth in the civil aviation cycle, new products and increased spend from its customers in the oil and gas sector.
The company is taking £150m to cover the cost of making 2,000 workers redundant each year, for three years. A spokesman for the company, which has been hit by its first set of strikes for 25 years, said this scale of job cuts was indicated last year.
