Rolls-Royce reaffirms commitment to UK

Aero-engines giant Rolls-Royce today restated its commitment to the UK in the wake of the country's vote to leave the European Union, but warned that longer-term assurances would depend on post-Brexit deals.

Rolls-Royce has confirmed it remains committed to Britain despite the Brexit. Picture: PA

Rolls-Royce said the referendum result was “not the outcome the company would have chosen”, but that it “remains committed” to Britain.

The company said the UK was “where we are headquartered, directly employ over 23,000 talented and committed workers and where we carry out a significant majority of our research and development.

“The UK’s decision will have no immediate impact on our day-to-day business. The medium and long-term effect will depend upon the relationships that are established between the UK, the EU and the rest of the world over the coming years”.

In a pre-close trading update before its interim trading results on 28 July, R-R said that its costcutting programme remained on target and it continued to expect a stronger performance in the second half of the year.

City engineering analysts expect R-R’s full-year 2016 pre-tax profits to slump to £633 million, down from £1.4 billion in 2015, itself a 12 per cent slide on 2014.

At the group’s AGM in May, chief executive Warren East said that “good progress” had been made on his plan to return the business to health after it had issued profit warnings five times in the previous two years.