Rising demand for defense equipment has given Rheinmetall a growth spurt in the second quarter.

With sales up 49 percent to 2.23 billion euros, the operating result jumped 111 percent to 271 million euros according to initial calculations, as the defense and technology group announced on Wednesday. Orders from the German Armed Forces financed from the special fund caused the order intake at Rheinmetall Nominations to swell to 11.4 billion euros.

Against this background and the expected business development in the second half of the year, the Executive Board confirms that it will "at least" achieve its targets. These envisage sales of around ten billion euros and an operating profit margin of between 14 and 15 percent. The full quarterly report is to be published on August 8.

(Report by Anneli Palmen, edited by Sabine Wollrab. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)