$1bn Japanese fillip for Rolls-Royce

Tarnished aerospace giant Rolls-Royce was given a much-needed boost today as it signed a $1 billion (£617 million) contract to supply jet engines to Japan’s Skymark Airlines.

Still reeling from recent and continuing allegations of corruption, the formerly squeaky-clean company cheered investors with news of a deal to supply Trent 900 engines to power six Airbus A380 aircraft. Rolls said it had also signed a letter of intent with Skymark to supply engines for 10 Airbus A330s.

The company also said it had won a contract from Canada’s Fednav to supply a “high-strength controllable pitch propeller” for an ice-breaking cargo ship that will transport nickel and copper concentrate from a mine in Quebec to customers in Europe.

The announcements sent the aerospace group’s shares up by 6p to 865.5p.

However, the stock is still trading about 6% lower than a fortnight ago, when Rolls warned that the company and some of its staff could face prosecution over allegations of bribery and corruption in overseas markets such as China and Indonesia.

The company said that an investigation by an external law firm had “identified matters of concern” relating to overseas intermediaries which it has disclosed to the Serious Fraud Office.

“It is too early to predict the outcomes… We will co-operate fully,” a Rolls-Royce spokesman said at the time.