A US activist hedge fund has turned the screw on Roll-Royce by nearly doubling its stake in the struggling aircraft engine maker to 10%.
California-based ValueAct has been pushing for change at Rolls-Royce since acquiring a 5.4% stake in the group in August. It wants the engineer to sell off its marine business to focus on producing engines for passenger planes.
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ValueAct has reportedly asked for a seat on Rolls-Royce’s board but the approach has been rejected by the Derby-based manufacturer.
Last week, Rolls-Royce issued its fourth profit warning in a year and hinted that it could cut dividend payments, sending its shares plummeting. It blamed falling demand for corporate jets in Brazil, China and south-east Asia, a decline in maintenance and servicing revenues from its engines for large planes, and slower demand from energy industry customers in the wake of the oil price slump.
Rolls-Royce, which makes engines for the Airbus A380 superjumbos, has been betting on strong sales for wide-bodied long-haul aircraft and says that by 2020 half the world’s jumbo jets will be powered by its engines. However, the trend among leading airlines is towards narrow-body passenger planes, a market that Rolls-Royce abandoned in 2013 when it pulled out of a joint venture with rival Pratt & Whitney so it could focus on wide-bodied aircraft and the next generation of single-aisle short-haul planes that should follow the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 Max.
On top of this, the company faces bribery allegations and a Serious Fraud Office investigation. This week it brought in a leading law firm, Slaughter and May, to help it deal with the investigation, which was launched two years ago.
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