Finmeccanica, Italy’s defence-dominated conglomerate one third owned by the Italian government, reported on Wednesday strong profit growth in 2008 but its cautious projections for 2009 disappointed investors.

“The deteriorating economic and financial outlook lowers visibility and increases uncertainty,” Alessandro Pansa, chief financial officer, told analysts in London as the company forecast revenues of €17.1bn to €17.6bn ($21.8bn-$22.5bn) for 2009 and €17.4bn to €18.6bn for 2010.

However Finmeccanica stressed that its backlog of orders covered 85 per cent of revenues for this year, 60 per cent in 2010 and 42 per cent in 2011.

Dividends would rise in line with profits, it said, giving a 11 per cent higher payout for 2008.

Debt payments were “totally manageable” and no refinancing was needed in 2009, Mr Pansa said. Debt at end-2008 stood at €3.38bn ($4.33bn), up from €1.15bn at the end of 2007, largely because of its acquisition last year of DRS Technologies, the US defence electronics group.

Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chief executive, and Mr Pansa said defence budgets of their three main customers – Italy, the UK and the US – were “substantially stable” in spite of the global crisis. Military related orders account for 51 per cent of Finmeccanica’s backlog.

The controversial US presidential helicopter contract – which Barack Obama has cited as an example of the procurement process “gone amok” – would probably be maintained but frozen at current levels without the add-ons requested by the US Navy, Mr Guarguaglini predicted. The contract was awarded by the then Bush administration to Lockheed Martin and Finmeccanica in 2005.

Governments’ expenditure outside the defence budget on domestic security were expected to increase, Mr Guarguaglini said, mentioning US Homeland Security, border control systems in the Middle East and security for Russia’s 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi.

He also stressed the diversification of markets and the growing importance of Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

In the current environment, Finmeccanica would focus on efficiency, profitability, cash generation and streamlining, Mr Guarguaglini said. Net debt reduction was the main goal, he added.

Finmeccanica continued to backtrack on its intended flotation of Ansaldo, its energy unit.

Mr Pansa said Ansaldo Energia would not be floated “at any cost” and spoke of the possibility of a sale of a “significant stake” to a single shareholder by the end of this year. Total disposals this year were expected to amount to €500m to €1bn, he said, but gave no details.

Ansaldo Energia was also expected to benefit from the decision of Italy’s centre-right government to relaunch the civilian nuclear generation industry after a 22-year moratorium.

Finmeccanica’s net profit rose almost 19 per cent to €571m in 2008.

Citigroup maintained Finmeccanica as a “buy”, saying its guidance for 2009 revenues appeared conservative. A Cassa Lombarda analyst thought the guidance ambitious.

Shares in the group closed down 4.5 per cent at €9.37. Over the past year they have fallen by nearly a half.