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Jet engine-maker warns that an increase in arms spending must benefit the region’s supply chain

French jet engine-maker Safran warned that an increase in European defence spending must benefit the region’s supply chain, and that the continent should be “careful” not to buy more US equipment.

“It’s positive news for the defence industry that European countries are going to increase their defence spending but we must be careful,” said Safran chief executive Olivier Andriès.

“Today, [European spending] is essentially done for the non-European industries and, primarily, American.” He added there would “probably be pressure from the new US administration to go even further” as Europe increases defence spending.

European governments’ spending on US arms has been a sore point for many of the region’s contractors, which are calling for more of the defence budgets to be allocated to local procurement.

The comments come as Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said he expected European members to raise defence spending to “north of 3 per cent” of GDP and as world leaders gathered at Munich’s security conference.

Defence accounts for about a fifth of Safran’s revenues. The company supplies M88 engines for Dassault’s Rafale fighter jets, and also provides equipment for military helicopters.

Andriès said he wished to increase its defence business but the operations needed more “visibility” on long-term investments as Europe enters a “war economy”.

“We’re ready to respond to the needs and to do it quickly . . . simply, to invest, we need visibility,” he said.

To expand its defence business, Safran would “aim to develop our footprint in other countries, because it’s a way to access other countries’ defence markets”, he said.

He said this could be done through expanding Safran’s operations or through partnerships, noting that India, the US, north and eastern Europe were among the countries the company was looking at.

The comments came as Safran reported record revenues and profits for 2024. Revenues rose to 18 per cent to €27bn, while operating profits rose 30 per cent to €4.2bn.

Safran raised guidance for its earnings and free cash flow on the back of higher than anticipated Leap engine deliveries, the best-selling systems used by Boeing and Airbus.

However, its forecast excluded the potential impact of anticipated tariffs from US President Donald Trump’s administration. The company has half of its sites outside of France, including in Mexico and Canada, which would be vulnerable to Trump’s threats of a trade war.

Asked about tariffs, Andriès said it was “very difficult to quantify the impact but there is potentially an impact because we are a global business”.

The sector’s supply chains have already struggled to recover following the Covid-19 pandemic and increased global tensions risk hitting Safran’s international supply chain. Safran already has at least two providers for each part it uses, and no country represents more than 50 per cent of the supply of a single piece, Andriès said.

Safran shares were up 1 per cent on Friday.

Research highlights growing focus on surrounding tissues to help tackle most malignant forms of the disease

Scientists have discovered a way to predict which cancers are most likely to spread around the body, widening a path to potential new treatments to halt the most aggressive forms of the disease.

Researchers found some malignant cells changed shape in response to biological structures around them, making it easier for them to break out to seed fresh tumours elsewhere.

The work highlights a growing focus on the chemical targeting of surrounding tissues as part of efforts to stop cancerous cells expanding to other organs. This process of spread, known as metastasis, is a feature of many cancer deaths because it makes the disease much harder to treat.

“Our research has uncovered the road map that cancer cells follow to break out of a tumour, enabling it to cause a secondary tumour elsewhere in the body,” said Victoria Sanz-Moreno, professor of cancer cell and metastasis biology at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, who led the study.

“Now that we understand this road map, we can look to target different aspects of it, to stop aggressive cancers from spreading.”

The study, published in Nature Communications on Friday, is the product of almost 10 years’ work on how cancer cells interact with surrounding biological support structures known as the extracellular matrix. This physical framework for cells, which the researchers describe as a kind of a biological “scaffolding”, influences how tumours develop.

The scientists, including experts from Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London, examined tumour tissue from 99 patients suffering from melanoma skin cancer and breast cancer.

They saw that extracellular matrix fibres at the outer edges of tumours pointed away from the malignancy, providing a “track” for the cancer to follow to spread. In addition, the tumour cells in that region were rounded in shape — a common feature of highly invasive cancers.

Cancer cells at the tumour border had more genetic traits linked to their abilities to survive and spread, the researchers found. Cancer patients with a higher presence of these kinds of genes died sooner than peers whose genes did not show these characteristics, they said.

Cancer is one of the biggest killers worldwide, affecting about one in five people during their lifetimes, according to the World Health Organization. It accounted for 20mn new cases and nearly 10mn deaths in 2022, the WHO says.

The research may intensify interest in the development of treatments targeting. lysyl oxidase enzymes, which play a role in binding the extracellular matrix together. One such drug is being investigated as a means to target pancreatic cancer.

Understanding how cancer spreads is “crucial to finding treatments which can stop the disease advancing”, said Iain Foulkes, executive director of research and innovation at Cancer Research UK, a co-funder of the study.

“This research shows how much cancer relies on the scaffolding around it to move and spread elsewhere,” Foulkes said. “Cutting down this scaffolding could deprive cancer of opportunities to spread and improve the chances of successful treatment, and I look forward to further research which hopes to achieve this aim.”

Glencore held talks over sale of multibillion dollar African copper mines

Potential disposals in DR Congo and Kazakhstan could be biggest by Swiss miner since Gary Nagle took charge in 2021

Glencore has held preliminary discussions about selling its multibillion dollar copper and cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in what would be a significant shift in strategy by the biggest western investor in the African country.

The FTSE 100 group last month rejected an unsolicited bid for the mines from a potential buyer in the Middle East because the offer was too low, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company would consider selling part or all of its Congolese assets for the right price, according to several people familiar with the matter.

Some of the people added that the company had not started a formal sale process and it was possible that no deal would be completed.

Glencore owns the Mutanda copper-cobalt mine and a 75 per cent stake in the Kamoto Copper Company, in which Congolese state-owned miner Gécamines also has a holding. Analysts at RBC value the mines at $6.8bn.

The mines have been a key part of Glencore’s pitch to western carmakers to be their supplier of choice for a suite of electric vehicle metals.

The global rush for copper, a red metal used in wiring, cables and electric vehicles, has triggered a wave of mergers and acquisitions activity among the major miners.

However, the Congolese mines have been far less profitable than Glencore’s other copper assets — generating just $195mn of earnings in 2023 on revenues of $2.4bn — because of operating setbacks and low cobalt prices.

Last February Glencore took a $1bn pre-tax impairment on the Congolese copper mines because of poor cobalt market conditions and the settlement of a tax dispute.

Glencore said in a statement: “At the end of last year, Glencore received an unsolicited approach regarding its operations in the DR Congo. The approach was rejected. Glencore has not engaged any banks or advisers and is not running a sale process for its operations in the DR Congo.”

In recent weeks, Glencore has separately held informal discussions with potential buyers over the future of its assets in Kazakhstan, according to people familiar with the talks.

Glencore abandoned a sale process last year for Kazzinc, a large zinc, lead and gold producer in which it holds a 70 per cent stake. RBC estimates the value of the stake at $5.1bn.

The sales would potentially be the biggest disposals by Glencore since chief executive Gary Nagle took the helm in 2021.

Glencore declined to comment on the potential disposal of assets in Kazakhstan.

Its departure from DR Congo would be a significant setback to the country’s attempts to court western investment to reduce reliance on China. Glencore is the only major non-Chinese foreign investor in the country’s mines besides Kazakhstan-based Eurasian Resources Group. 

Glencore’s Congolese mines produced 225,000 tonnes of copper and 35,000 tonnes of cobalt last year, making the group the world’s second-biggest cobalt producer.

Any potential sale would be further complicated by the fact that Glencore pays royalties on the mines’ output to Israeli businessman Dan Gertler, who is under US sanctions.

Glencore is one of the world’s biggest commodity traders and also has a large mining portfolio. It is the world’s sixth-largest producer of copper, and top western producer of thermal coal.

Last year Glencore held brief merger talks with Anglo-Australian group Rio Tinto, and the previous year it made a $23bn hostile bid to acquire Teck Resources of Canada, which was rebuffed.

The company is due to report its annual results on Wednesday.

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