Canadian aircraft and railcar manufacturer Bombardier earned net income of $218 million in the fourth quarter, 95 percent better than a year ago and far outpacing earlier quarters in 2007 as well. Net income for the year was $317 million, an 18 percent improvement over the previous year.
The company credited the popularity of its products, but clearly cost controls and reduced debt had a lot to do with the improvements. Chairman and CEO Laurent Beaudoin affirmed the company's goal of strengthening its capital structure in order to regain investment grade status. Since 2003, debt has held Bombardier in or near Fitch's BBB range.
With revenue of $5.3 billion for the quarter and $17.5 billion for the full year, Bombardier saw enough new orders come in to put their backlog in both its divisions at record levels.
At Bombardier Aerospace, annual revenue increased by 17 percent to a record $9.7 billion, and backlog reached $22.7 billion, an increase of $9.5 billion compared to January 31, 2007.
Annual revenue at the railcar division totalled $7.8 billion, an increase of $1.2 billion over last fiscal year. With $11.3 billion in new orders, the order backlog, net of a recently announced Metronet contract adjustment, stood at $30.9 billion as of January 31, 2008, the highest in the industry.
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