AEROSTAR POSTS 25 PERCENT INCREASED TURNOVER AND 30 PERCENT INCREASED NET PROFITS FOR 2012

Bacau, Romania…..Aerostar S.A. the leading Romanian aerospace company, has announced increased turnover and profits for the year ended December 31, 2012.

Building on its strategy of steady diversification and growth into the commercial aviation sector, while still retaining its position as a first rank supplier to the Romanian Ministry of Defence, Aerostar is a thriving and profitable maintenance and overhaul company for a range of both commercial and military aircraft, employing 1800 people.

It is also an established producer of aerostructures, components and assemblies for the global supply chain and can offer a complete package to its customers by holding both EASA Part 21 approval for aviation manufacturing and Part 145 approval for MRO.

For its last financial year Aerostar continued its recent history of recording excellent financial results and increased its turnover by some 25 percent to nearly 197 million Romanian Lei (2011: 158 million Lei acc. to RAS).

Net profit for the year totaled just over 15 million Lei, up nearly 30 percent over the 2011 figure of just over 11.5 million Lei acc to RAS.

Aerostar has announced that of this 15 million Lei net profit, 4.5 million Lei will be kept as reserves with the remaining 10.5 million Lei distributed as dividends (gross dividend per share 0.090 Lei across 117, 136,530 shares).

Grigore Filip, President and General Director of Aerostar said today;”These are another set of excellent results for Aerostar and vindicates our decision in 2004 to diversify into commercial aircraft MRO. Last year we achieved our objective of deriving some two-thirds of our turnover from the commercial aviation sector, accounted for by MRO and also the manufacture of aerostructures, landing gears and hydraulic systems”.

He continued: “At the moment we have MRO approvals for the Boeing 737 Classic and New Generation, the Airbus A320 family, the BAe 146/Avro RJ regional jet and the Rolls-Royce M250 turboshaft engine. We have completed more than 230 ‘C’ and ‘D’ checks for over 30 airlines from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India.

“For the current year we plan to consolidate our progress and to continue to provide excellent quality service for our existing customers who we welcome back for more business, as well as trying to find new MRO customers from countries within a 3-4 hour flight time from Bacau”.