Rolls-Royce (LON:RR) shares jumped 11 percent at market open on Friday, after announcing plans to save £400 million a year through 4,600 job cuts.
The UK is likely to be the worst hit by cuts, that will likely be centred on middle management jobs, engineers working on early-stage design. It will be the company’s biggest round of job cuts since 2001.
Investors were cheered by Rolls-Royce’s announcement that would be well placed to exceed free cash flow of £1 billion by 2020 and set a mid-term target of free cash flow per share to exceed £1.
It added that the jobs would not include those protected by an agreement with unions in the East Midlands.
“After a decade of significant investment we are committed to delivering significantly improved returns, while continuing to invest in the innovation needed to realise our long-term ambition to be the world’s leading industrial technology company,” chief executive Warren East said.
“It is never an easy decision to reduce our workforce, but we must create a commercial organisation that is as world-leading as our technologies.”
Rolls Royce shares are currently trading up 11.44 percent at 983.90 (0821GMT).
