Sweden's Saab posts higher-than-expected 2024 organic sales growth

COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Swedish defence equipment maker Saab expects to report 2024 organic sales growth of 23.4%, it said on Friday, above its previous outlook at the upper end of a 15-20% range.

The company, which competes with defence giants such as Lockheed Martin, France's Dassault Aviation and Britain's BAE Systems, is riding an industry-wide boom in demand as rising global tensions, not least due to Russia's war in Ukraine, fuel rapid rearmament.

"The increased organic sales growth... follows a higher-than-expected sales development due to exceptional project execution in the fourth quarter," Saab said in a statement.

Shares in Saab were down 4.7% by 1252 GMT after initially rising on the news. The stock is still up 30.7% in the last 12 months.

Saab said it expected sales for the October-December quarter of 20.9 billion Swedish crowns ($1.87 billion), up from 16.1 billion a year earlier, boosting full-year sales to 63.8 billion crowns from 51.6 billion in 2023.

Preliminary operating income for the fourth quarter rose to 2 billion Swedish crowns from 1.4 billion a year earlier.

The maker of military hardware such as missiles, advanced electronics, submarines and the Gripen fighter jet, maintained its expectation that operating income would grow at a faster pace than sales.

The company will report its final earnings for 2024 on Feb. 7.

($1 = 11.1632 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Stine Jacobsen, Kirsten Donovan)

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