BAE tops Boeing in global arms sales, report says
BAE Systems Plc overtook Boeing Co. as the world's largest arms dealer in 2008, the first time a non-U.S. company leads the annual list compiled by a Swedish military research institute.
London-based BAE sold equipment for $32.4 billion in 2008, ahead of Lockheed Martin Corp., which sold arms for $29.9 billion, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in a report today. Boeing fell from first to third place, selling arms for $29.2 billion in 2008. Boeing was the only one of the top 20 arms producers to cut sales in 2008, SIPRI said.
Total arms sales of the world's 100 largest military equipment-producing companies, excluding those based in China, rose 11 percent to $385 billion in 2008, largely driven by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, SIPRI said.
"BAE really shows the increasing internationalization of the arms industry and the attractiveness of the U.S. market" SIPRI arms industry analyst Susan Jackson said in a statement.
BAE had revenue of 20.3 billion pounds ($31.3 billion) last year, less than half the $68.28 billion in revenue at Boeing, which gets most of its sales from commercial aircraft, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Lockheed Martin had sales of about $45 billion last year. Spokespeople for BAE weren't immediately available for comment.
With 106,900 employees at the start of this year, BAE has expanded in countries such as India, South Africa and Australia, where it purchased Tenix Defense in 2008. Recent acquisitions in the U.S., the world's biggest defense market, include United Defense Industries Inc., maker of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Last year, BAE reported a net loss of $105 million after it wrote down the value of a U.S. acquisition and agreed to pay fines to resolve six-year-old bribery and fraud investigations.
Chinese companies, several of which would be big enough to make the top-100 list, were not included because of lack of reliable data, SIPRI said.
SIPRI, an independent arms research institute funded mainly through grants from the Swedish government, said it based its report on sources including companies' financial reports and Web sites, news publications, government publications of contract awards, as well as its own questionnaire.