Brazil's Embraer Q1 profit nearly quadruples

Brazilian aerospace giant Embraer, the world's third largest commercial planemaker, nearly quadrupled its first-quarter earnings this year, driven by executive jets and defense and security contracts.

The company reported a net profit of $110.6 million in a statement released before markets opened Wednesday.

The figure is up 268 percent from the same period last year, when Embraer earnings totaled $30 million.

The plane maker said it delivered 14 commercial and 20 executive aircraft in the first quarter, compared with 17 commercial and 12 executive planes in the same period last year.

Revenue from security and defense, in which the company is heavily invested, increased 87 percent compared with a year earlier, while executive aircraft revenue rose 81 percent.

Embraer reported $394.3 million in security and defense revenue in the first quarter and $267.4 million in executive aircraft revenue.

Neither neared commercial aviation revenue at $555.3 million, which was nonetheless down 13 percent.

Embraer said defense and executive aviation "should have greater representation in the total revenue in 2014 compared with 2013, in line with company estimates."

The company reported total revenue of $1.2 billion, a 14 percent increase compared with the first quarter in 2013.

Its backlog of firm orders "grew again and reached $19.2 billion in the first quarter, the highest since the second quarter of 2009."