July 22 (Reuters) – Airbus shares jumped more than 5% on Wednesday after the European planemaker launched a €5 billion ($5.7 billion) share buyback programme and unveiled new mid-term targets including a near doubling of profits by 2029.
Airbus said late on Tuesday it was targeting a core profit of €12 billion to €13 billion in 2029, which would mark a sharp rise from €7.13 billion of adjusted earnings before interest and taxes last year and is well above the 2026 target of €7.5 billion.
“The positive surprise, however, came from the €5 (billion) three-year share buy-back,” Deutsche Bank analyst Christophe Menard said in a note to investors.
The world’s largest civil planemaker also expects its dominant commercial aircraft business to generate around €10 billion in operating profit in 2029 and struck a positive tone on aircraft deliveries.
Airbus started the year slowly due to supply-chain and engine bottlenecks but has since accelerated deliveries, increasing first-half handovers by 15% year-on-year.
J.P. Morgan wrote that Airbus “delivered on all the things we felt were needed for the shares to rally”.
($1 = €0.8763)
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
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