Italy-based defence contractor Leonardo saw new orders surge in 2025, with CEO Roberto Cingolani saying Europe’s defence companies must collaborate to ensure the content is independent from the United States’ security umbrella.
New orders were up 15% to €23.78 billion, buoyed by a 55% increase in aeronautics orders. Revenue rose 11% to €19.50 billion, and EBITDA climbed 9.5% to €2.43 billion.
“Leonardo’s preliminary 2025 results highlight a significant increase across all key economic and financial indicators and a substantial reduction of the Group’s net debt. We exceeded the challenging guidance, which had been already upgraded during the year,” said Cingolani.
Net debt dropped 44.2% to €1.00 billion, which the company credited to stronger cash generation and a €446 billion collection from selling its underwater armaments and systems business.
European defence companies should work together to support the continent’s defence needs, Cingolani told CNBC.
“The silent agreement was that Americans were paying for European defence,” said Cingolani. “Correctly, the Americans want Europeans to be more independent. It’s a reasonable request.”
“On the other hand, it means we need to develop our own technologies that are complementary to the American ones and under the NATO umbrella.”
The company said in October that it would combine its space business with those from Airbus and France-based Thales. Leonardo also signed an agreement with Spanish transport and defence technology company Indra Group to collaborate on cyber defence last week.
European defence spending rose by 12.6% to US$563 million in 2025, according to an International Institute for Strategic Studies report.
This follows NATO members’ agreement that year to boost defence spending to 5% of gross domestic product by 2035. The U.S. has pressured other NATO nations to raise their contributions to the bloc, and has refused to rule out taking Greenland from NATO member Denmark by military force.
Leonardo (BIT: LDO) shares closed 3.8% lower at €56.92. Its market capitalisation is €33.03 billion.
