Rolls Royce sees 2009 profit similar to last year - Online

British engine maker Rolls Royce Group Plc said on Thursday its underlying profit for 2009 would be broadly similar to last year, but that it was too early to predict the full impact of the economic crisis.

The company, best known for manufacturing plane engines, said in a statement its 2008 pretax profit came in 10 percent higher at 880 million pounds ($1.27 billion), slightly ahead of analyst forecasts.

Analysts were expecting pretax profit before exceptional items to come in at 872 million pounds, up from 800 million last year, according to Reuters estimates.

Rolls said its order book had increased by 21 percent to 55.5 billion pounds, but that the global downturn would hurt the company.

"The current economic crisis will have an impact on the group, its customers and suppliers, but it is too early to be precise about the scale and duration of these effects," it said.

Source: Reuters