LONDON, July 26 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Six months after calling Rolls-Royce (RR.L) a “burning platform”, Chief Executive Tufan Erginbilgic is giving Britain’s flagship engineering group a high five. Shares spiked 20% as investors celebrated the possibility of free cash flow hitting 1 billion pounds in 2023, 37% above consensus. The company had nearly 3.3 billion pounds of net debt last year, and Barclays analysts are pencilling in an increase this year. Erginbilgic can safely argue that Rolls-Royce is no longer a burning platform, but until he closes that gap he can expect heat from investors. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

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Persons: Tufan Erginbilgic, Erginbilgic, France’s Safran, Pamela Barbaglia, Aimee Donnellan, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Royce, Barclays, Electric, Twitter, Thales, Thomson