PARIS (Reuters) -Aerospace group Thales reaffirmed financial targets on Thursday as it posted higher than expected nine-month revenues and new orders, led by defence spending and demand for avionics.
Europe’s largest defence electronics group said revenues rose 9.1% on a like-for like-basis to 15.26 billion euros ($17.80 billion), with its largest division, Defence, gaining 13.9%.
The intake of new orders rose 9% on a comparable basis to 16.76 billion euros.
Analysts were on average expecting nine-month sales of 15.13 billion euros and orders of 15.72 billion, according to a company-compiled consensus.
The fresh order intake included an initial contract with the SpaceRISE consortium of satellite operators to provide systems for the future European constellation IRIS².
CFO Pascal Bouchiat welcomed the “first key step” towards implementing the European Union’s secure communications constellation but warned of competitive pressures in space.
“Telecoms activity in space remains under pressure, that’s clear. The fact that we had this first development contract for IRIS² doesn’t take away the challenges that the European industry, in particular, is facing,” he told reporters.
Thales said revenues in its Space business grew in line with annual expectations over the first nine months of 2025. Thales has said it expects “low single-digit” growth for the year, significantly lower than in Defence and Aerospace.
Its Cyber & Digital segment posted a 3.8% drop in sales in part due to the process of merging Thales sales teams with those of cybersecurity firm Imperva, which it bought in 2023.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Tim Hepher;Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
