Flight simulator firm cashing in on U.S.

MONTREAL — The head of flight simulator company CAE Inc. said Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump’s appetite for defence spending is a boon to the Montreal-based company, as newfound access to contracts tied to top-secret missions pave the runway for more revenue.

“On the defence side, budgets continue to be on the rise worldwide, and in the U.S. they are at historical highs,” president and CEO Marc Parent told shareholders at an annual general meeting.

On Monday, Trump signed a $716-billion US defence spending bill for 2019, an $82-billion increase from 2017 and a dramatic upswing from most Obama-era military budgets.

CAE’s acquisition of Virginiabased Alpha-Omega Change Engineering this month opens the hatch to “top-secret missions,” mainly out of the U.S., Parent told reporters.

An agreement between the U.S. government and a CAE subsidiary allows a proxy board made up of two American generals and a military contractor executive to oversee the highsecurity contracts, he said.

“That opens up an extra $3 billion of potential market for us. So that brings our total addressable market in the world to $17 billion,” Parent said.

As to what the classified missions involve, he said only, “you can speculate all day long.”

Parent defended how CAE potentially stands to benefit amidst heightened military spending south of the border, more combative language from the White House and the creation of a new armed services branch focused on fighting wars in space.

“It’s certainly not offensive,” Parent said of CAE’s training and simulator programs. “It’s for defence and security forces and search and rescue.”

“To me, there is a societal benefit to what we do. It’s to help personnel execute their mission and save lives that way,” he said. “I don’t see it negatively.”

The annual meeting at CAE’s Montreal headquarters saw former federal finance minister John Manley named chair of the company’s 10-member board of directors. Manley replaces James Hankinson at the helm.

CAE, which operates in three dozen countries, saw annual revenue rise five per cent year-overyear to $2.83 billion in 2018. CAE also increased its dividend as it reported its first-quarter profit and revenue improved compared with a year ago.