Saab profit beats forecast as defence boom spurs surge in orders

By Niklas Pollard

STOCKHOLM, July 17 (Reuters) - Swedish defence and aerospace group Saab reported a bigger-than-expected rise in operating earnings for the second quarter on Friday as booming demand in its major markets drove a sharp rise in sales and order bookings.

The maker of the Gripen fighter jet said in a statement that operating earnings rose to 2.79 billion Swedish crowns ($289 million) from 1.98 billion a year earlier, beating the 2.48 billion crown mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts, as new orders more than doubled.

Saab, which also makes military equipment ranging from missiles and advanced electronics to submarines, said like-for-like sales rose 29.8% year-on-year and that it remained focused on scaling up capacity to meet the surging demand.

Already riding consecutive years of surging demand driven by rapid rearmament across much of Europe due to Russia's war in Ukraine, the pace has picked up still further for Saab in recent months with a string of huge orders.

Saab, which competes with giants such as U.S. Lockheed Martin, France's Dassault Aviation and Britain's BAE Systems, said order bookings soared 141% year-on-year in the quarter.

Saab is set to produce new Gripen E fighters to Ukraine and could see Brazil adding 20 more of the aircraft to its existing fleet while the company has also inked a $4.8 billion contract with Poland for three A26-type submarines.

Meanwhile, NATO has announced plans to buy Saab's GlobalEye surveillance planes as has Canada.

With decades of experience in combat jets, Saab is seen as an attractive partner as European countries look to line up next-generation fighters, especially after the collapse of a collaboration project between Airbus and Dassault Aviation earlier this year.

Sources told Reuters last month that Airbus was increasingly looking to Saab as a preferred future partner.

"I'm not saying that we're closing any doors but we must carefully assess what is good or not good for Sweden," Saab CEO Micael Johansson told Reuters on Friday by phone about prospects for cooperation on next-generation fighters.

"This is not just a combat aircraft system we're talking about, but a system of systems, so it also includes unmanned. So of course there can be openings for cooperation, but we'll have to return to that when we have come further in that analysis."

($1 = 9.6637 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Niklas Pollard, editing by Essi Lehto and Susan Fenton)