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Roll Royce, a leading British engineering firm best known for making jet engines, has witnessed a downturn in its revenues for the first time in a decade with annual pre-tax profits falling by 8% to £1.6 billion ($2.5 billion).
The downward trend was suspected last year when the company laid off 2,600 workers, lost its chief financial officer and saw its share price sink.
Circumstances like global falling oil prices which had affected the firm’s energy business and the fact that there has been a reduction in defence spending that has hit its military-aerospace business over the last year, have been pointed to as prime reasons for the downturn.