Hope has returned to Rolls-Royce. People are flying again and there’s a new boss with a decent CV promising change. Like his predecessor, Tufan Erginbilgic began his reign criticising how the group had been run. Investors, buoyed by favourable trading conditions and the prospect of the new chief executive finding the antidote to Rolls’ problems, are lapping it up. Faith, it appears, hasn’t been completely lost yet.
Erginbilgic, a former BP executive, needs to demonstrate that Rolls’ core aerospace business can generate sustainably enough cash to ease the strain on its balance sheet, restore an investment-grade credit rating and keep making the necessary investments (this is a very capital-intensive business, especially with today’s green agenda). Achieving that mission hinges largely on a sharp increase in
