Welcome to the Safran Third Quarter 2024 Revenue. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to your hosts, Olivier Andriès, Safran CEO, and Pascal Bontenny, Group CFO. Mr. Andriès, please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Safran's third quarter 2024 call. I'm here with Pascal. Let us go straight to the key highlights. In the first nine months of 2024, we delivered a strong performance, with a 17.4% growth in revenue. This performance was mainly driven by a solid level of services for aircraft equipment and for engines, with civil aftermarket increasing by 26.2% in dollar terms.
On the other hand, LEAP deliveries were up sequentially, with 365 deliveries in Q3 2024, but remained below expectation due to supply chain bottlenecks in specific areas that still require improvement. In terms of portfolio management, we completed the acquisition of Preligens, a leader in artificial intelligence technology, which is now part of Safran Electronics and Defense.
Furthermore, we announced the contemplated acquisition of a U.S.-based company, CRT, a world leader in the repair of aircraft engine parts. This move clearly reflects our plans to ramp up our global MRO network and further strengthen our MRO capabilities in America. Despite revised downward expectation for OE deliveries on narrowbody, the strong performance in the first nine months of the year enables us to update our full-year 2024 outlook.
We now anticipate revenue around EUR 27.1 billion, and we raise our EBIT forecast to EUR 4.1 billion. The cash guidance is unchanged, but remains subject to payment of customer advances. Turning to slide four, let me give you an overview of Safran's Q3 and nine-month sales for 2024. In Q3 2024, revenue stood at EUR 6.6 billion, an increase of 14% compared to Q3 2023.
Level of services remains strong across all activities, with civil aftermarket increasing by 20.5%. OE sales benefited from ramp-up, but were limited by supply chain constraints and downward revision in demand. As shown by the revenue increase in the first nine months of the year, the group is continuing on its growth trajectory with a 27.4% growth added, around EUR 3 billion of additional revenue.
Turning to Slide 5, let me share with you some of our key recent business achievements. VietJet Air has renewed its commitment for an order of over 400 LEAP-1B engines for its 737 MAX fleet, including additional spare engines. This partnership underscores our continued presence in the dynamic Asian market. In helicopter engines, we continued to build momentum.
The Arrano 1A helicopter engine was recently certified in China, marking an important milestone for the engine's presence in the civil market. Additionally, in India, Safran, through its joint venture with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, HAL, has entered into a partnership to develop and produce the Aravalli engine, which is a new generation, high-power engine for India's new heavy helicopter platform, a thirteen-ton helicopter.
Serbia signed a contract for twelve Rafale fighter jets, powered by our M88 engines, which brings M88 orders to more than one thousand units since the inception of the program. It confirms the Rafale as an essential vector of national sovereignty. Hanwha in Korea, who provide the Redback infantry fighting vehicle to the Australian Defense Forces, has selected our PASEO joint fire solution. This solution will enhance the vehicle's long-range surveillance and target acquisition capabilities. It is another strong example of our defense portfolio relevance to the global market, in the global market. Let me now hand over to Pascal for more details on Q3 sales.
Thank you, Olivier. Good morning, everyone. Starting with FX. After fluctuating around the 1.12 level during the third quarter, the euro-dollar rate has returned below 1.10, which is favorable in the long term for the group. We continue to hedge our 2028 exposure, which is now mostly fully completed. For 2024, we confirm a hedge rate of $1.12 per euro, which is 1 cent better than what we had in 2023. The average spot rate in Q3 2024 at 1.10 was slightly above its level in Q3 2023 at 1.09. This translates into a negative impact on sales of nearly EUR 45 million. Turning to page eight, as Olivier said, Q3 revenue reached EUR 6.6 billion, up 14%.
You can see that the scope and currency impact almost offset each other, so the organic growth is 13.8%. This is an incremental EUR 800 million of revenue year over year. Half of that is coming from equipment and defense. In the third quarter, OE and services grew at the same pace, meaning 14%. The revenue growth momentum observed in the first half, 19%, slightly slowed down in Q3, with lower than expected deliveries in the narrowbody segment. On slide 9, we provide a few details for activity. Globally, in propulsion, revenue reached EUR 3.3 billion, up 9.2%. OE deliveries were flat. We've delivered 265 LEAP engines, a slight improvement from Q2, but still below the expected level.
The annual forecast is revised downwards to approximately minus 10%, and this guidance assumes ongoing deliveries to Boeing. It was to some extent offset by additional volume on military engines, especially M88 and helicopter turbine deliveries. On the service side, revenues were up 13.3%, driven by civil aftermarket, up 20.5%, driven as planned by the LEAP PFH contracts growth and to the spare parts growth, both in CFM56 and widebody engines. Specifically on CFM56, shop visit volume was up, in line with our full-year view.
First of August, we had our price escalation in the high single-digit %, and the work scope was pretty stable. To a lesser extent, the service growth is also coming from the military aftermarket, both for spare parts and services.
Equipment and defense revenue grew to EUR 2.5 billion, up 16.3%. OE revenue was up 19%, driven by a ramp up in OE deliveries across key programs, such as the A320neo for nacelles and electrical systems, 787 for electrical systems, and the G700 of Gulfstream for nacelles, as well as avionics. Services were up 12.6%, supported by all activities, and I would say as usual, notably by the carbon brake activities. Aircraft interiors performed strongly, with revenue at EUR 771 million, up 28%. OE revenue was up 30%, driven by a remarkable uptick in business class seat deliveries.
Almost 600 units were delivered in Q3, continuing on the positive trend from the second quarter, where we shipped 500 units, and it compares to 174 units being delivered last year in Q3. Services revenue was up 25%, largely supported by demand for spare parts for both cabin and seats, and we've seen a strong demand from Asian and Middle East airlines, benefiting from the growth of the widebody markets. Turning to page 10, I would like to comment two additional topics.
First, we've executed the first tranche of share buyback of 250 million EUR last summer. We repurchased a total of 1.3 million shares. We have since launched a second tranche of 500 million EUR that we will complete by early December.
All shares that will be repurchased during these two tranches will be canceled by year-end. At the current share price, it is likely to be in the order of 3.6 million shares, which is about 0.8% of equity, and then the final tranche of EUR 250 million will be executed in H1 next year. Second, regarding potential new tax measures in France, based on the draft finance bill published early October, we now estimate an additional current tax expense for 2024 in the range of EUR 320 million-EUR 340 million, which represents €0.75 a share, with a related cash outflow in 2025.
We could also be impacted marginally by two other measures introduced into the draft finance bill. First, a new registration fee on share consolidation, and second, the postponement of the abolition of the tax known as CVAE. All this is under review by the French Parliament at this time. Olivier, back to you.
Thank you, Pascal. Based on this strong nine-month performance, we are raising our recurring operating income outlook to around EUR 4.1 billion, compared to close to EUR 4 billion previously. On the other side, in light of downward expectation for OE deliveries on narrowbody, we are now targeting EUR 27.1 billion of revenue, compared to EUR 27.4 billion previously.
The cash forecast is maintained, even though we face some pressure on advance payment and inventories. This revised guidance is based on a couple of underlying assumptions. LEAP engine deliveries are now expected to be down 10% in 2024, compared to flat to +5% previously, reflecting ongoing supply chain bottlenecks. The group priority remains to best meet customer needs and unlock supply chain constraints.
Before we answer your question, let us conclude with a save the date for our Capital Market Day on December the fifth, twenty twenty-four. We would be delighted to host you either online or in person at our Safran campus near Paris, upon pre-registration, to share exciting news for the coming years. Our investor relationship team will help you prepare your venue. I thank you for your attention, and now Pascal and I will be very pleased to answer your questions.
Thank you. If you would like to ask a question, you'll need to press star one and one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Thank you. We will now take our first question. This is from the line of Aymeric Poulain from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my question. On the free cash flow guidance, that is unchanged, you say, lower advances, and higher inventories. However, I think you got some advances from the Serbian Rafale order. So, is it mostly due to the LEAP delivery, and the effects related to that? And, as a follow-up, what would be the impact of a prolonged Boeing strike, in terms of destocking effect on Safran's figures, early next year, for example?
Good morning, Aymeric. This is Pascal. Free cash flow, we do maintain our full year guidance at 3 billion EUR. As we've said back in July, there are still uncertainty around that number. But as we move closer, you know, to the thirty-first of December, there are two months to go now, we are more confident that we can hit that target.
The uncertainty we had was about, you know, the pre-delivery payments on the LEAP-1B, given, you know, the situation at Boeing. Now, we feel reassured because Boeing is taking deliveries of all LEAP-1B engines that we ship to them. As you rightly said, we signed, you know, the Rafale contract in Serbia, and there was also uncertainty about the payment of the first advanced payments. We did receive last week a few tens of millions with respect to that contract. So we have much more certainty today about our cash situation. That's why we are reiterating confirming our full year guidance.
With respect to the Boeing strike and impact on inventory, the fact is that the Boeing situation in twenty twenty-four basically has created a lower demand from their side compared to what we had in mind at the beginning of the year. Plus the bottlenecks on the LEAP, on the LEAP side, globally, like, create a situation where we have a high level of inventory as we speak. Now, we'll for next year, we'll be mindful of making sure we soften a little bit the impact on our own supply chain, because we need to make sure that our supply chain will be ready to restart and to ramp up once we need. Basically, we want to make sure that we soften a little bit the impact of those shocks on our own supply chain.
I will add on the cash side, because you were talking about twenty twenty-five as well, that there is an additional tax expense in the P&L in twenty twenty-four, but the cash outflow will be in twenty-five. Be aware that the EUR 320-340 million additional tax will be cashed out in twenty twenty-five.
Okay, thank you.
Thank you. We'll now move to our next question. This is from Ian Douglas-Pennant from UBS. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Yeah, Ian at UBS. Firstly, on your LEAP deliveries, so you've got LEAP deliveries down year over year, but OE sales up. Could you help us square those two against each other, and in particular the ratio of engines that you're selling as spares and how that has changed over the year, please? And secondly, the supply chain issues that you're talking about in the release and just now on with regards to engines, how important is the HPT certification to unlocking those issues? Thank you.
Hello, Ian. On the deliveries on spares, we are still at a level which is higher than basically what we have experienced on the CFM56 globally during the life of the CFM56. So, basically I would say it's double digit, a double digit share of the overall LEAP deliveries, low double digit. So the LEAP deliveries are down. It is impacting as well our spare engine delivery.
As you know, we have to serve two types of clients, our lessors clients, but also our airline clients that want us to ensure that we keep them flying. And so every week, you know, it's a decision of allocation to make sure we serve as best as we can our two types of customers.
Supply chain, but still paced, LEAP delivery is still paced by HPT blades. Yes, as we discussed in July, the situation is improving. The yield has improved, compared to where we were in Q2, so there's an improvement, but which is below what we had expected and what we had needed, basically to keep the previous guidance. So that's where we are.
What we are expecting, as our partner said in its own communication, we are expecting in the coming weeks, a very important event, which is going to be the certification of the new blade. So it's a matter of weeks now. This will help us going forward, for sure. This will help us, yes, this will help us. Now, as our partner said, it will be a step. It will not suddenly unlock everything, but it will be a very important step forward.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from George Zhao from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Hi, yeah, good morning, everyone. First on guidance, you know, civil aftermarket growth outlook unchanged. We don't have the Q3 profit to get a better sense of the quarterly performance, but what exactly changed between last quarter and now to drive the EBIT guide increase? And second, on civil aftermarket growth, so, you know, once again,
you've said that it reflected another strong increase in LEAP RPFH contracts, but unlike the two prior quarters, you know, the 20.5% growth this time around seemed in line with the implied guide, so was the impact from the RPFH on Q3 growth, you know, was that less than the impact on prior quarters? Or asked another way, what was the growth of the CFM56 and high throughput spares in Q3? Thanks.
Morning, George. So, as I said, last July, from the capital market day and starting in 2025, we would break down our civil aftermarket into likely two parts to give you more clarity on the trends on spare parts sales, which drive most of the profitability of the group, and services. Services being partly on the RPFH for the LEAP, for which we do not recognize any EBIT yet. So I understand that it could be a bit confusing, that's why we provide more clarity. With respect to the first nine months of 2024, I would say that what we see on the spare parts side of the business is in line with our expectations, I would say in the mid-teens growth, revenue growth, okay?
which is part of, you know, building blocks are, you know, stable work scope, high single digit growth in pricing and volume growth, okay? It applies to CFM56, it could even be slightly higher when we speak about wide body engines. Then on the services, we are seeing much higher growth rates, between 40-50%, more like, which is triggered by a low comparison basis. Last year, we are starting off from very low numbers, so this is why, you know, the growth rates are so impressive to some extent. But again, this is not driving any change in profitability.
Thank you. We'll now take the next question. This is from Olivier Brochet, from Redburn Atlantic. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Olivier, Pascal, thank you for taking my question. I would have two, if I may, please. I would like to come back on the Boeing topic and ask what the effect on equipment, on the equipment side, could be, and also, if I could come back on the LEAP deliveries. You said that you continue delivering engines to Boeing, but you're cutting the guidance quite sharply in volumes.
Does it mean that the Q4 numbers will be materially impacted? And second question, Chromalloy announced some new stuff, an HPT blade for the V2500 from your competition and efforts on the CFM56. Could you discuss the PMA threat on this one in particular, please?
Thank you, Olivier. We keep delivering LEAP engines to Boeing. Boeing does accept LEAP engine deliveries. But considering the situation, you understand that basically we will deliver less LEAP engines to Boeing than what we had planned at the beginning of the year. So this is part of the overall situation because the demand has been lowered, but we keep delivering LEAP engines to Boeing. On the equipment side, we are on board, let's say Boeing platform, on the 787. We keep delivering landing gear to the 787, because the 787 is not impacted by the strike in Charleston.
We are delivering wiring kit for the Boeing 737 MAX, and yes, indeed, those, the ship set deliveries have been suspended during the strike. We expect the strike to basically stop within weeks. We as you know an agreement has not been reached. The vote has been negative this week, but we expect the discussion to restart soon, and we expect that an agreement will at the end of the day be found in the coming weeks. We are prepared to restart delivering our equipment ship sets. On LEAP deliveries, by the -10% outlook that we see basically takes into account a sequential improvement in Q4 versus Q3, for sure.
It is taking into account the current supply chain situation on the LEAP, and especially the bottlenecks on the HPT blade. PMA, yes, we are well aware of the Chromalloy and Fortress initiative. They have been lagging with their own certification, as you know. Of course, we are mindful of it, but once again, let me highlight that 50% of the fleet is owned by leasing companies. The leasing companies, they care about the residual value of their engines, and so they don't like PMA. Those PMA initiatives only address a portion of the spare parts.
It does not address the LLP, which is basically the most significant part of the most significant element of our spare parts. So we are following that, and we of course have commercial proposal basically to remain attractive to our airline customers in face of those initiatives.
Yes, thank you. Could I ask how many LEAP engines you think Boeing has in excess of its needs at the moment?
We are not communicating on that, but it's, well, okay. It's, let's say, typically a three-digit number.
Low three-digit number?
It is a three-digit.
Yeah, yeah, low.
It's a-
Yeah.
It's a three-digit number.
Okay. Well, thank you very much for your answers.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from Chloé Lemarié, from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Olivier and Pascal. Thank you for taking my question. I'd have two as well, if I may. The first one is on the timing of payment on the LEAP-1B. Could you remind us roughly what's the phasing, what is due when you deliver to Boeing versus when they deliver to airline? Because I think that has changed since the beginning of the program.
The second one is on seats. So business class seats were up massively in the quarter. So could you share with us what helped you achieve this? Whether it was certification of some model achieved, and given that we've seen pretty limited widebody deliveries in Q3, whether this was largely retrofits? Thank you.
Good morning, Chloe. On your question about payments from Boeing on the LEAP-1B, we do receive a share of, you know, prepayments received by Boeing from the airline a long time before we start delivering the engine. So CFM does receive a fixed portion of the advance payment Boeing is receiving. And then at delivery of the engine, we do receive, you know, the complement in pricing. So we have the full cash impact when we deliver the engine, not when Boeing is delivering the aircraft.
Bonjour, Chloé. On seats, basically, we are today in a period where we deliver ship sets of business class seats that have been certified earlier at the end of last year or beginning of this year. So we are in this phase of production, if you wish. We still have ahead of us seats to be certified, but we have entered in a more significant period of production, and we are delivering both for line fit and retrofit. Indeed, we have two demands. The line fit demand and following the ramp-up of the widebody aircraft, both on the A350 from Airbus and the 787 from Boeing, A330neos as well. And also, there's a significant demand on the retrofit side.
Typically, because the widebody deliveries overall have lagged a bit versus airline expectation, some airlines have decided basically to retrofit their current widebody aircraft, and so we have to serve that demand as well. So it's a significant pickup, but as expected, it's a significant pickup of business class seats deliveries this year compared to last year.
Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll take our next question. This is from Ken Herbert from RBC. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning.
Morning.
Morning, Ken.
Two questions, if I could. First, can you comment on how many of the new HPT blades you potentially have in inventory that could be ready to ship when you get certification there? And then on my second question is, on CFM56 pricing, have you seen any change in airline acceptance or pushback on the high single digit price increase on CFM56 material, maybe more this year relative to prior years? Or has there been any inflection in your airline customers' acceptance of the pricing on the CFM56 spare parts? Thank you.
Hello, Ken. There are certainly an inventory of new HPT blade. As you know, we are expecting the certification of this new HPT blade, but within the next weeks. And so as soon as these blades are going to be certified, we'll be ready to ship, let's say, some of them, especially for the MRO market. So I will not quantify, but yes, there's new HPT blades already available. On the CFM56 pricing, as you know, we are mindful of making sure that our price increase remains acceptable to the market. We know there's a very significant demand for spare parts.
As you know, as the level of retirement of all the aircraft retirement has been low. Basically the used markets, the used parts market has not been fed, and so there's not many used parts available today in the market. So this provides a good momentum for new spare parts, but we are mindful of basically making sure that those price increase remain rational, if you wish. So we've not seen any pullback today.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from Ben Heelan from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, guys. Hope you're both well. So the first question I had was on the supply chain situation right now across equipment and on the interior side. So if you look at the A320neo, landing gear deliveries, they were down a little bit in the quarter. Is there anything that just generally across those two divisions, that is particularly holding things up right now, or particularly a significant bottleneck that we need to be thinking about? And then the second question, you kind of touched on it, Olivier, about supply chain and managing the supply chain through LEAP.
I think in the past you'd kind of highlighted that you were in a position to deliver roughly two thousand ship sets on the low pressure modules for the LEAP this year. That supply chain has actually been performing relatively well. As you roll forwards over the next six, twelve, eighteen months, are you keeping the supply chain at a relatively elevated level on LEAP so that some ramp up in 2025 or 2026? Or is there gonna be some risk of destocking over the next twelve, eighteen months that could also put some pressure on that supply chain there? Thank you.
Thank you, Ben. A lot of questions. The supply chain situation is progressively improving. But not to a point where basically I can affirm that the supply chain issues are going to be completely behind us in twenty twenty-five, but it is progressively improving. The number of critical situations and what we call black points situations is decreasing today.
As we speak, we still have about 20 suppliers that we follow very carefully, that are critical, if you wish, for our overall performance across the board on engines and aircraft equipment interiors. About 20 suppliers that critical supplier that we follow very, very tightly. So that's one, and we are, as Alain already mentioned, we've been reinforcing our supply chain management team, doubling our the number of our supply chain managers.
You know, deploying tools and what we call our One Safran Operating Excellence methodology, to help our suppliers move forward. So that's one. You mentioned the landing gear, and yes, indeed, I had mentioned the landing gear situation as a tough one, especially for the A330, not the A320, but the A330neo in the first half of this year.
We are back on track, and so basically on the A330neo now we are delivering on rate four as expected by our customer. We've not been pacing on landing gear on both A320 and A350, but once again, we are following very carefully our overall supply chain there. We will end up this year with a high level of inventory, for sure, for two reasons.
The first reason is the consequence of the Boeing situation, because basically, even if we continued to deliver LEAP engines, basically we've delivered less LEAP engine than what we expected at the beginning of the year, just because they don't need them, but we are still delivering, as I said, and also because of the overall LEAP situation and the bottleneck on the HPT blade, so yes, indeed, we have a high level of inventory on the low pressure side of the LEAP, so we could theoretically take the decision to basically decrease our inventory next year, but that would impact badly our suppliers.
So basically we have decided to soften the impact vis-a-vis our own supply chain, because we want to make sure that our suppliers will continue to accompany us for the ramp up, because the ramp up will be there for both Airbus, and it will restart on the Boeing side as well. So we need to be careful vis-a-vis our own supply chain, and want to make sure to soften a little bit the impact in order to keep them aboard and running. So we are going to try to basically manage our inventory next year, of course, with the view to decrease the rotation, as we say, in terms of inventory, in terms of days of revenues.
So we want to make sure that we are going to manage and decrease our rotation indicator. But in absolute terms, we will make sure to soften a little bit the impact on our own supply chain. We have our own responsibility with this supply chain.
That's very clear, Olivier, thank you. Just a quick follow-up on the interior side. You know, like Chloé mentioned, the business class seats have seen a very significant increase in the last couple of quarters. If you think about series deliveries and economy seats and areas like that, do you feel that they are potentially gating items to deliveries at the OEMs at the moment?
No, we have not. Hi, Ben, this is Pascal. We have not noticed any, you know, Black points on the economy seats on economy seats, at this point, so yeah.
We are experiencing a significant ramp up at the moment on both business class seats and economy seats. No specific black points. Now, I have to also say that certification remains a challenge, not only for us, but for the overall aircraft interiors providers and seat providers, as the certification authorities have decided to tighten the criteria. So it remains a challenge, the certification.
Very clear. Thank you both.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from Christophe Menard from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, thank you for taking my question. A follow-up on the seat situation. I mean, we heard from OEMs that seat suppliers can be a pacing item, basically, to deliveries. Given the surge in deliveries that we've seen in the year, would you consider yourself still as a pacing item? I think it's still. It was a little bit the question before, but just wanted to make it clear. Second question was on FX.
When do you think you will be able to narrow the range of hedging next year and the year after, where you're still in one twelve to one fourteen? And the last question is on the portfolio adjustments. I understand that you may be looking at disposing of Roxel or your stake in Roxel, while looking at CRT in the US. Can you give us a little bit more details on that CRT acquisition, the strategy you have behind it, and is it part of your bigger MRO plan, basically, in terms of developing your offering? Thank you.
So, Christophe, as you've seen from our numbers, we are at the moment in a significant shortage of deliveries of business class seats and economy class seats, for especially for line fit and widebody aircraft. Yes, it is one of the potential pacing item for widebody deliveries. It's still a challenge ahead of us for the weeks to come. And so we are putting in place all the resources to make sure we deliver on time our ship set to the airframers, but also we are providing what we call on-site support to the final assembly line, to make sure that we fully support our OEM customers before the handover to their own customers.
So, it's a race for the weeks to come, and we've been putting in place all the necessary resources to be by our customers' side, and make sure we will not impact their own deliveries. But it's a challenge, it's a race, yes. Portfolio management, so Roxel, we have signed an agreement to sell our 50% share of Roxel to MBDA. MBDA is by far the main customer of Roxel, by far. And so it is making sense for us that we sell our share to them. And basically, we've got to an agreement with an adequate price for this share. So we expect this deal to be closed by the end of this year.
But now, what is the rationale behind the CRT acquisition? CRT is recognized, let's say, provider of repair solution, repair engine solution, especially on casing. So, they are suppliers to us for the CFM56. They will be a supplier for LEAP as well. They are doing repairs also for other engines, and so they are recognized as to be one of the best experienced company for those repairs. As you know, we are today in a race as well to significantly ramp up our MRO capabilities, and get prepared for this huge need that we will have for LEAP. There is going to be a significant number of shop visits for the LEAP.
We see today the surge of LEAP shop visits, and so we have decided to invest more than EUR 1 billion to increase our MRO capabilities. Not only for the engine maintenance, but we have also decided to be a strong player in the repair capabilities. So it's both sides, if you wish. Engine maintenance shops, so we've taken the decision to basically to build new shops and to extend our existing shops.
You may know that I've already communicated on India, new shop in India, an extension of our shop in Mexico, and we are going also to soon announce, let's say, very soon, a next decision on this one. But repair as well, and so it makes complete sense for us, basically, to get into the casing repair. It's a significant part of the repair solution through the acquisition of CRT. And we have decided also to be present in the three main geographical areas, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
On your last question, Christophe. Morning. As we usually do, we provide a midterm guidance at the next Capital Markets Day, and FX is one of the underlying assumptions. So we provide a crystal clear assumption about our FX hedge rate going forward.
Thank you. Thank you, I try. Thank you very much.
Well, actually bringing-
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from David Perry, from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Pascal and Olivier. Can I ask two questions, please? So first, could you just give us a bit more color on M&A? So, any details you can share on CRT in terms of its sales and EBIT, and also an update on, Collins and the timing of that deal, if you think it's gonna close? And then the second question is a bit more conceptual, and I know you won't want to say too much ahead of the CMD, but I just want to think about LEAP aftermarket margins going into that event.
And I just wanna ask you, would you agree that your accounting just seems very conservative compared to your peers, not just GE, but all the other engine companies? And is there any particular reason for that? Is it purely your choice? I'd just be interested in any conceptual comments you may be willing to share on that. Thank you.
Morning, David.
Hello, David. I will start with the first one. CRT, it's about 500 people. If I remember correctly, it's, I think around EUR 200 million of turnover-
Yeah
Around both, you know, it's mainly aircraft engines, huh? Mainly aircraft engines. So customers are CFM, CFM56, and LEAP. And GE is also one of the customer for the CRT, for the iThrust engines. On Collins, we have filed on the issue side, and the change of ownership side, with the relevant authorities. We fixed the situation in Italy, as you know, earlier this year, and we are getting prepared. Hopefully, we plan to file for the antitrust side. We are prepared to file by the end of this year, hopefully. Today as we speak, we expect, let's say, a closing to occur by, let's say, H1 2025, I would say.
As you know, on the antitrust side, basically we need to fix some potential issues on the antitrust side, and this is what we are doing today. This is where we are focusing today. We want to make sure that once we file, basically we have answered and found responses to all the potential questions of the antitrust authorities, and so this is where we are focusing today.
David, on your second question, as you know, the LEAP RPFH contracts are CSM services contracts, meaning, within the CSM agreement, 50/50, GE and Safran. This is why the margin at completion of all our book of contracts is the same, either at GE or Safran. You won't see more profits at any other partner. It will be the same profits at the end of the day.
The main difference, it seems to be, the way we will account for profits, going forward. So we know it will be the central theme of the next capital market day. I would not say that we are very conservative, but given the maturity of the engine, the fact that we are introducing in 2025, the new HPT blade that is aiming to more than double the time on wing on for LEAP-1A, and then in 2026 for the LEAP-1B. We are still in the early days of that engine. We believe on our side that it is cautious to maintain some contingency going forward.
Not too much contingency. That is why very conservative seems a bit, you know, not the right wording to me, but we want to keep some contingency that we will release over time. But at the end of the day, we will have exactly the same profit, dollar profit, than our partner because it is a CFM service contract.
If I could just-
Yeah, please go ahead.
If I can just probe a bit more around it. MTU has sent an agenda out for their CMD and it says that they're going to guide all the way through to 2030, which is longer than we normally see from companies, but kind of makes sense to me, given the longevity of programs. I just wonder how you're thinking about framing your CMD.
I mean, it sounds to me from the way you're recognizing margin, your comment just now on the LEAP-1B, new blade kicking in from 2026, that maybe we're not going to see the full LEAP benefits if you guide 2027 or 2028. I mean, is there a framework for how you're gonna guide? Are you gonna also extend the envelope, just so that we can kind of prepare our expectations?
Yeah. So what we will do is to provide a guidance for 2028, which is exactly what we've done in the previous CMDs. So the financial guidance will be 2028. And then, as you rightly said, most of the profits that are embedded into our LEAP PFS contracts will come after 2030.
So this is why we will provide also some indication on 2030 and likely 2040, to give you a sense of, you know, how big is the opportunity for the LEAP PFS compared to what we had historically on CFM56. Because we are clearly very excited about the LEAP PFS and globally LEAP aftermarket business. So we need to give you a long-term view to discuss with you, you know, what is the shape of profits and opportunities going forward? I guess it is a bit compared to MTU. Yeah.
I look forward to it. Thank you for that.
Me too.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question. This is from Hervé Drouet from CIC Capital. Sorry, CIC Market Solutions, please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Olivier and Pascal. Quite a lot of questions have been already answered. I will take two. The first one will be on tax. Just want you to confirm firstly if there will be as well an estimation on the tax to be taken on the 2025 numbers, and will it be half of what you guided of these around 320-340 million EUR? So are you expecting half as well to be booked in 2025? And also, on the tax side, do you expect any impact from your share buyback? I think you still have 725 million EUR to be done.
Is there going to be a potential tax on that with the new financial law that can impact you? And would it be just marginal or could it be meaningful for you? And the second question is again on LEAP and also profitability. At the moment, do you book any profit for the OEM LEAP, or is it booked as a loss? And if it is at a loss, out of your increase of the guidance in the EBIT of EUR 100 million, how much is coming from your reduction of delivering of LEAP, if it is at a loss? Thank you.
Morning, Hervé. On the tax side, on corporate tax, yes, indeed, it seems to be temporary over two years. So as I said, a 41.2% surtax applied in 2024, with a cash outflow in 2025. And then half of that, so the surtax should be 20.6% applied in 2025, being cashed out in 2026. So it's a bit early, but I would have a guesstimate of nearly EUR 500 million for both years. You know, a bit more than 300 in the first year and the remaining in 2026. But it's, I guess, a rough estimate that I can make. Then, it is true that there will be a registration fee applicable to certain capital reductions.
Clearly applying this registration fee to the reduction of share capital coming from the repurchase share that we will cancel. It is deemed to be less than 1% of the total repurchase amount. So we are expecting to repurchase EUR 750 million of shares this year. We will conserve these shares by year end, so the tax we are prepared to pay is a couple of millions, I would say. Then on LEAP, as you rightly say, we book a loss for all LEAP OE deliveries, so part of the guidance upgrade is definitely coming from less LEAP engines being delivered.
Yes. What could you give us a percentage of this?
No.
No.
No, no, no, we won't.
Okay. Okay. Thank you very much.
Now, so the point to highlight is with the combination of, on the LEAP OE side, we are globally breakeven because of the combination of the installed engine that we deliver to the airframers, on which we have a loss, and the spare engine that we deliver to the airlines, where we make a profit. So the overall balance is breakeven.
Okay, I understand. Thanks. That's very clear.
We'll take the last question.
Thank you. Our last question is from Olivier Brochet, from Redburn Atlantic. Please go ahead.
Yes, thanks. I just had a quick follow-up on the HPT blade. Is the certification dependent on what is happening at Boeing in terms of the strike?
Bonjour, Olivier. No, not at all. The certification that we are expecting in the weeks to come is relating to the LEAP-1A. So we expect the certification, the new blades for the LEAP-1A, at the end of this year, and we expect the certification of the LEAP-1B for Boeing at the end of next year. And yes, we will need Boeing support for that, but this is planned for the end of next year, end of 2025.
Next year. Okay, perfect. Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you.
Thank you all. I'm looking forward to seeing you at the Capital Market Day, especially David. Bye-bye, guys.
Bye. Have a good day. Thank you.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating, and you may now disconnect.