By Olivia Bugault
Thales SA backed its 2021 guidance on Tuesday after reporting slightly lower sales and higher order intake in its third quarter.
The French aerospace-and-defense company posted sales of 3.56 billion euros ($4.15 billion) in the July-September period, compared with EUR3.58 billion the prior year. Organically, sales fell 1.4% due to a "high basis of comparison," especially at its defense-and-security division, it said.
Thales's ground-transportation-systems business is now excluded from the results and guidance after the company said in August that it was selling the unit to Japanese conglomerate Hitachi Ltd.'s subsidiary Hitachi Rail. Thales said Tuesday that a definitive agreement for the disposal should happen in the first quarter of next year.
Its civil aeronautics and biometrics businesses continue to suffer from the coronavirus pandemic, it said.
The global semiconductor shortage had an impact of EUR20 million to EUR30 million on the sales of its digital identity and security division since the beginning of 2021 and the situation isn't improving, with tensions on the supply chain that should remain next year, Thales's Chief Financial Officer Pascal Bouchiat said during a call with journalists. In the third quarter, the digital identity and security division booked sales of EUR736 million, up 0.4% organically.
Order intake rose to EUR2.99 billion from EUR2.73 billion.
Thales backed all its 2021 targets including sales of between EUR15.8 billion and EUR16.3 billion.
Write to Olivia Bugault at olivia.bugault@wsj.com