Jets Help Canadian Bombardier Return to Profit

MONTREAL (AP) -- Bombardier Inc., a maker of airplanes and trains, Thursday said it returned to a profit in its latest quarter, helped by an increase in deliveries of business jets.

However, the Montreal-based company, which recently decided to compete with major airplane-makers Boeing and Airbus in the mid-size jet market, said it would not pay a dividend this year after posting a loss in its fiscal 2005 year.

Net income came to $56 million, or 3 cents a share, for the fourth quarter ended Jan. 31. That compares with a loss of $340 million, or 20 cents a share, a year earlier.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial had been looking for a fourth-quarter profit of 2 cents a share.

Revenue fell slightly in the latest quarter, to $4.80 billion from $4.87 billion, hurt by lower revenue in the aerospace segment.

However, business jet deliveries rose 44 percent in the quarter with orders up 69 percent.

As of Jan. 31, Bombardier said its order backlog was $31.5 billion, down from $34.6 billion a year earlier.

For the full fiscal 2005 year, the company's net loss remained flat at $85 million. On a per-share basis, the loss narrowed slightly to 6 cents from 7 cents.

Full-year revenue rose to $15.84 billion from $15.51 billion in fiscal 2004, helped by its railroad business.

Based on its results for fiscal 2005, Bombardier said it won't pay a dividend on common shares in the current year, its fiscal 2006. The company has been paying regular quarterly dividends of about 2 cents a share.

Bombardier's Aerospace unit is the world's leading maker of regional jets, ahead of Brazil's Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica SA. It's also one of the two largest makers of business jets, along with Gulfstream. Its Bombardier Transportation division is the world's largest maker of railway equipment.

With orders for its 50-seat regional jets tapering off, Bombardier's board earlier this month authorized the company to offer a new aircraft model, called CSeries, that would seat 110 to 130 passengers.

The proposed new plane would vault Bombardier into a new multibillion-dollar market and pit the company against the world's two major commercial airline makers - Boeing of the United States and Airbus of Europe - in the market to sell mid-sized jets to international airlines.