Rolls-royce, one of the UK’s largest global companies, has posted a record loss of around £4.6bn before tax.
The staggering figure is the largest loss in the company’s history and has been attributed to a number of extremely large one-off costs.
The jet engine manufacturer reported that it had agreed to pay a considerable fine of £671m following a number of corruption cases in the UK and US.
By far and away the largest culprit for the company’s loss however was the weakening of the pound following the UK’s decision the leave the European Union.
As a global company Rolls-royce does many of its deals in dollars and so the company was hit incredibly hard when the post-Brexit slump caused a significant weakening in the pound.
Despite the doom and gloom the picture is actually rosier than you might expect.
You see behind the one-off payments and currency fluctuations and the business itself is actually performing well.
While profits were down, just £813m in 2016, they had actually beaten expectations by investors who believed the current economic climate would hit the company even harder.
Just this week the company announced that it would be branching into the world of autonomous vehicles and start building the first truly crewless ships.
Working with government-backed groups across Europe, the company is hoping to launch tugboats and ferries first, with cargo ships that can sail across international waters set to follow.
Rolls-Royce said the tech would cut transport costs by as much as 20% while making sailing safer.