Aselsan continues profitable growth

ANKARA

Aselsan’s turnover in the first six months of the year increased by 33 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 7 billion Turkish Liras ($809.5 million), according to a company statement.

Turkey’s top defense company posted net profit growth of 37 percent year on year to reach 2.5 billion liras ($289.1 million).

Its earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 49 percent compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 1.9 billion liras. The EBITDA margin was 27.3 percent.

The company’s equity to assets ratio was 57 percent, while the total backlog was $9.2 billion in the same period.

“The first half of 2021 was a period when the effects of the pandemic started to ease with the accelerated vaccination and the economic activity was noticeably active compared to the same period of the previous year. As ASELSAN, which continues its activities uninterruptedly as always, we continued to progress on the path of stable growth while maintaining our profitability,” said Haluk Görgün, Aselsan CEO and president.

“In the first half of 2021, we achieved to receive new orders of $711 million. We not only received orders to meet critical defense needs at home but also have accomplished important works abroad. While the number of countries we export to was 70 at the end of 2020, this number increased to 71 by the end of the first half,” he added.

In the last three years, Aselsan managed to nationalize 400 products together with its business partners, the statement noted.

“By placing orders for these products worth $56 million, we ensured that an amount of $145 million remains in our country, according to the projection for the next the years,” said Görgün.

“We are constantly improving our ecosystem with over 4,000 suppliers. In the first half of 2021, we continued to nurture our supplier ecosystem with new orders and within this framework, we placed orders worth $760 million.

Nearly 70 percent of these orders were placed to our local companies. In the first half, we supported our suppliers
financially by paying more than 7 billion liras.”

Aselsan placed 48th in Defense News Top 100 list for 2020 with $2.2 billion in revenues.

The prestigious American magazine compiles the list in accordance with companies’ annual defense revenues.

Aselsan increased its defense revenues by 2 percent year-on-year in 2020, according to Defense News.

U.S. companies Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, Northrop Grumman and General Dynamic topped the list with annual defense revenues of $62.5 billion, $42 billion, $32.4 billion, $31.4 billion and $29.8 billion, respectively.

Aviation Industry Corporation of China ($25.4 billion) and British defense giant BAE Systems ($23.5 billion) followed them.

Turkish Aerospace Industries ($1.2 billion) ranked 68th, down from 53rd in 2019.

In the previous year, five other Turkish companies - BMC, Roketsan, STM, FNSS and Havelsan - also entered the top 100 list.

Turkey’s defense and aerospace industry exports racked up $2.3 billion in 2020.

The sector’s exports declined 16.8 percent compared to 2019, according to data from the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly (TİM).