Rolls-Royce new boss nets £22m paper profit after share price rally

The new boss of Rolls-Royce has made a £22m paper profit on his shares in the FTSE-100 giant after engineering a remarkable share price rally last year.

Tufan Erginbilgiç, a former BP executive, joined Rolls-Royce last January after years of turmoil which included a brush with bankruptcy during the pandemic.

The Turkish businessman described the company as a “burning platform” and said it’s performance was “unsustainable,” shortly after taking the top job.

Shares have soared more than 250 per cent since his arrival, with investor’s backing his no-nonsense cost-cutting approach. Rolls-Royce’s stock is the best performer in the European Stoxx 600 index of the biggest listed companies.

Huge demand for jet engines, coupled with increasing military spending globally have been key to the firm’s success alongside Erginbilgiç’s leadership.

Annual operating profit more than doubled on Thursday to £1.6bn, well ahead of analysts expectations and alonside record free cash flow.