Rolls-Royce to sell ITP Aero and other assets to raise at least £2bn

British aero-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is planning to sell ITP Aero and other assets to raise at least £2bn.

ITP Aero is a Spanish aero-engine and gas turbine manufacturer established as a joint venture between Spain’s SENER and Rolls-Royce.

During the first half of 2020, the company reported a loss before tax of £5.4bn and revenue of £5.8bn, marking a 26% decrease.

Rolls-Royce chief executive Warren East said: “We ended 2019 with good operational and financial momentum. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly affected our 2020 performance, with an unprecedented impact on the civil aviation sector with flights grounded across the world.

“We have made significant progress with our restructuring, which includes the largest reorganisation of our civil aerospace business in our history.

“This restructuring has caused us to take difficult decisions resulting in an unfortunate but necessary reduction in roles.

“These actions will significantly reduce our cost base, which, combined with a recovery in Power Systems and continued resilience in Defence, will help us to deliver significantly improved returns as the world recovers from the pandemic.”

In May, Rolls-Royce revealed plans to axe 9,000 jobs from its global workforce to deal with the reduction in engine and service demand due to Covid-19.

Under the fundamental restructuring of Civil Aerospace, the company noted that more than 4,000 had left the business by 27 August.

The company expects to cut at least 5,000 employees across the group in the UK, Germany, Singapore and other locations worldwide by the end of this year.

This includes more than 2,500 voluntary severance and early retirement agreements in the UK.

Rolls Royce expects annualised pre-tax savings of at least £1.3bn across the group by the end of 2022 from the restructuring programme.

It is also proposing to consolidate advanced Trent fan blade production from two global sites into one in Singapore.