British aircraft engine producer Rolls Royce announced on Thursday that the company had experienced more than double net loss last year. The loss is around £3.2 billion. The company claimed the cause of this loss is due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The company was forced to lay many people off due to the severe loss.

The last year’s loss of 3.7 billion Euros or $4.4 billion after-tax is huge compared to 2019’s loss of £1.3 billion.

As civil aviation was highly impacted by the pandemic, the revenues sloped to nearly 29% to £11.8 billion.

Rolls Royce said in a statement that the pandemic has had a ‘severe impact’ on the company’s performance last year.

The CEO of the company, Warren East also shared some positive news on Thursday. In his opinion, the company is now over the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19. He said, ‘The worst is now well behind us.’ After the huge loss that the company had experienced, in 2020, this prediction brings some ray of hope.

The company stated that their cash burn will be cut in half this year. And with the vaccination, customers will be convinced to fly again and it will bring positive results in the second half.

He further revealed that the company is well prepared to cut costs and raise funds to tackle the crisis.

He said to the reporters that the company has managed to bring the ‘cash burn under control’. The company has enough liquidity to handle the crisis for a long period.

The company used to charge the airlines by the hours its engines flew. With the pandemic, almost all the civil airlines abruptly stopped flying. That caused Rolls Royce to lose a huge amount of money overnight. It forced the company to acquire new debt of 5.3 billion pounds.

Rolls Royce’s civil aerospace department brings almost half of the company’s annual revenue. They are used in the Boeing 787 jets, A350 Airbus, and many more.

The company predicts that it will lower the previous year’s cash burn of 4.2 billion pounds to 2 billion pounds this year.

The company has laid off 15% of employees in 2020. It set aside assets of 2 billion pounds for sale in order to restore its balance sheet.

The company was established in 1906. It works in different sectors like energy, air, and defense.

The share of the company soared at 2% to 115 pence at 0950GMT. But then they lost 41% after the pandemic in the year 2020. On a positive note, the company has recovered and gained almost 22% last month.

The company intends to sell its Spain-based ITP unit and is in talks with potential buyers. Norway has postponed the company’s sale of Norwegian unit, Bergen Engines worth 150 million euro. The sale was suspended due to security reasons.