Rockwell Collins CEO sees opportunities

Rockwell Collins shareholders were given an upbeat status of business report Thursday by CEO Kelly Ortberg at the company's annual meeting in Cedar Rapids.

Ortberg said the avionics, communications, and information management services provider returned to solid revenue growth in 2014 and sees more opportunities in 2015.

'With the acquisition and integration of ARINC, information management services is about 12 percent of our company,” Ortberg said. 'It's a growing market, and I would like to see us build out that portfolio.

'I think that will bring some acquisition opportunities to provide further applications and services that we might be able to offer our customers.”

Ortberg said Rockwell Collins will have equipment on all Boeing commercial aircraft introduced over the next five years. He noted that the Airbus A350 XWB aircraft features the most content that Rockwell Collins has on any Airbus airplane.

With Rockwell Collins earnings, revenue, and cash flow increasing 2014, the company's stock price has climbed to about $87 a share. Ortberg told the shareholders that he is confident the stock will remain attractive to potential investors.

Aviation regulators, safety advocates and airline executives from around the world attending a summit in Montreal this week agreed to establish new flight tracking protocols.

In comments after the meeting, Ortberg said Rockwell Collins will be able to play a key role in tracking the exact location of aircraft.

'There are still regions of the world where airplanes are not under radar tracking surveillance,” he said. 'That's where we want to use our global positioning system and data link equipment to provide position information.”

Ortberg said Rockwell Collins will continue to partner with aerospace businesses in countries like India where it wants to expand sales.

'We're learning and putting some people in place in India,” he said. 'We're having some modest success in selling our type of equipment into that market.

'You will also see us develop more relationships in the Middle East.”