Dive Brief:
- Defense and security company Saab appointed its deputy finance chief, Anna Wijkander, to step into its top finance seat effective Sept. 9, according to a Tuesday press release.
- The move comes after the Stockholm, Sweden-based company — which develops technologies for use in defense aviation and aerospace, among other sectors — announced in April that its current CFO and deputy CEO, Christian Luiga, would be departing.
- Luiga is moving to serve as CFO for music streaming platform Spotify. He is set to join the company in the third quarter of this year.
Dive Insight:
Wijkander joined the defense company in 2015 and has served as its deputy CFO and head of corporate controls since April 2021, according to her LinkedIn profile. Prior to joining Saab, she worked at Stockholm-based telecommunications service Ericcson for nearly 18 years, serving in a variety of roles, including as head of corporate business control for its sales division and director of strategy and market analysis.
The CFO swap comes as the defense materials company is looking to continue a two-year hot streak, with Saab’s share prices having spiked amid a rise in European military spending due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Shares have risen by 385% since the start of the war in the Ukraine and Saab’s order backlog has increased by 50% since 2021, Bloomberg reported at the top of the month.
Saab is also optimistic about further growth and reported a 9% jump in order bookings for its Q1 2024 and organic sales growth of 24%, according to results released in April. The defense materials company also updated its sales outlook for the year, now expecting organic sales growth between 15% to 20%, as opposed to its previous range of between 12% to 16%.
However, some analysts have expressed concerns that the company’s stock rally may soon deflate, according to the Bloomberg report, after Sweden suspended plans to send Saab AB aircraft to the Ukraine last month. Part of a planned military support package, the country is holding off on spending the planes — equipped with Saab’s Gripen systems — to the Ukraine to prioritize the delivery of F-16s fighter jets, Barron’s reported in May.
The deal would likely have led to replacement orders from Saab, and its suspension sent Saab’s stock down by 4.8% when the news broke, Bloomberg reported. Saab CEO Micael Johansson downplayed the incident, noting to Bloomberg that the system could still be sent to the Ukraine down the line.
Saab did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
