Swedish defence group Saab's order bookings soar on back of Ukraine Gripen order

By Johan Ahlander

STOCKHOLM, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Swedish defence and aerospace group Saab reported on Friday a bigger-than-expected rise in third-quarter profit on the back of soaring sales as it continued to ride a wave of global rearmament.

Operating profit at the maker of the Gripen fighter jet rose to 1.95 billion crowns ($197 million) from 1.37 billion a year earlier, against a 1.91 billion mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts.

"It is a very strong quarter," CEO Micael Johansson told Reuters. "Very good order intake, quite a few large orders, strong sales growth — over 30% organic — as well as increased profitability and strong cash flow," he said, adding that the company was well positioned to meet its financial targets.

Saab, which also makes military equipment ranging from missiles and advanced electronics to submarines, said in a statement that like-for-like sales rose 30.6% year-on-year.

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 further for Saab this year with a string of large orders.

Saab, which competes with US-based Lockheed Martin, France's Dassault Aviation and Britain's BAE Systems, said order bookings soared 216% year-on-year in the quarter, including a 24.6 billion crown Gripen order from Ukraine.

Saab is trying to convince Canada to buy Gripens as a complement to its F-35s programme, and Johansson said he was travelling to Canada shortly.

"From a purely logical standpoint, I believe it would be a very good solution for Canada, and it would make for a very good partnership between Canada and Sweden," he told Reuters.

Ultimately, however, it was a political call for Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, he said.

(Reporting by Johan Ahlander, editing by Anna Ringstrom, Stephen Coates and Tomasz Janowski)