STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish defence contractor Saab reported on Thursday a jump in third-quarter profit helped by high demand and raised its full-year sales outlook, sending its shares up 7% in early trade.
Operating profit at the maker of the Gripen fighter jet rose 51% from a year earlier to 859 million crowns ($76.9 million) on organic sales growth of 31%.
"The geopolitical tensions are impacting our industry and driving the largest increase in defence investments in the last 30 years, particularly in Europe," CEO Micael Johansson said in a statement.
"In the third quarter, high demand for Saab's broad defence portfolio continued to result in significant order intake, strong sales growth and improved profitability."
The maker of military and civilian hardware, whose customers besides Sweden - which has applied to join NATO - also include France, Britain and Germany, said order intake soared 93% to 15.0 billion crowns.
"To be able to meet the growing demand from customers in the next decade, building additional capacity and capabilities based on new technologies will be crucial," Johansson said.
Saab said it now sees organic sales growth of 19-23% in 2023. Its previous guidance, given in July, was for 16-20% growth. It repeated that it expects operating profit growth to be higher than organic sales growth.
The company's share price is up 49% year-to-date.
($1 = 11.1717 Swedish crowns)