Northrop Earns $210.4 Million, Reverses ’89 Loss
Northrop Corp. earned $210.4 million in 1990, reversing an $80.5-million loss the year earlier, when the firm posted writeoffs on troubled programs.
The Los Angeles-based aerospace company ended 1990 with a record $6.7-billion backlog of orders, up nearly 20% from the year earlier, while it cut its debt 30% to $777 million.
“The company’s financial results in 1990 reflect better performance in most of our major product areas, in part because we are seeing the initial results of an intensive, companywide program to improve management of our business and oversight systems, and to reduce costs,” Northrop Chairman Kent Kresa said.
In the fourth quarter, Northrop earned $42.7 million on sales of $1.5 billion, a sharp upturn over the previous year’s period.
In Kresa’s first full year as Northrop chief executive, 1990 operating profit rose sharply to $346.8 million from $135.7 million in 1989. Net income in 1990 included a $67.1-million gain from the sale of the company’s headquarters building in Century City.
Operating profit in the firm’s electronics segment was $56.3 million, reversing an $11-million loss the previous year. Its missile operation also turned around a huge 1989 loss of $142 million to report a 1990 profit of $23.5 million.
But the firm’s aircraft segment, which includes the massive B-2 bomber program, posted an operating profit of $261.6 million, down somewhat from $284.1 million the previous year, although sales were up slightly. Fourth-quarter results in aircraft were up 32% on a much smaller increase in sales.
