Rolls-Royce Reports Strong Start to 2025, Maintains Full-Year Guidance

Rolls-Royce (LON: RR.) reported a robust start to 2025, with all divisions said to be performing well and full-year guidance reaffirmed, despite global tariff uncertainty and continued supply chain pressures.

The company's shares are up around 3% in early Thursday trading.

In a statement to shareholders at the company’s Annual General Meeting on Thursday, Chief Executive Tufan Erginbilgic said the transformation of Rolls-Royce was “progressing strongly” and delivering year-on-year improvements in profit and cash flow.

Rolls-Royce continues to expect both underlying operating profit and free cash flow for 2025 to be between £2.7 billion and £2.9 billion. 

Erginbilgic said the company would offset the impact of new tariffs through mitigating actions and is “closely monitoring” any indirect effects on growth and inflation.

In Civil Aerospace, large engine flying hours rose to 110% of 2019 levels in Q1, helping drive strong aftermarket revenue. 

New technology developments are on track, including the expected certification of an upgraded HPT blade for the Trent 1000 engine.

Defence saw continued strong demand and delivered its first AE 3007N engine to Boeing for the U.S. Navy's MQ-25 drone programme. Power Systems achieved strong revenue growth, supported by high demand for data centre back-up generators and a book-to-bill ratio of 1.5.

Rolls-Royce SMR also said it received a strategic investment from ČEZ Group and remains the only company in Step 3 of the UK's regulatory approval process for small modular reactors.