Embraer expects Brazil's development bank to almost triple its financing commitments for new sales from the 11% achieved last year, the manufacturer's president and CEO said Friday.

Speaking to analysts and media during a conference call to discuss the company's 2008 results, Frederico Fleury Curado also indicated that Embraer will not contemplate changes to its commercial product line for another 20 to 24 months, and even then a decision is contingent on the development of new engine and airframe technologies, as well program developments at Airbus and Boeing.

The Brazilian manufacturer's top executive also said the development of a turboprop is a secondary decision to either a new or adapted jet aircraft.

These details came during a call to discuss the 20.6% year-on-year drop in Embraer's 2008 net profit to $388.7 million, due predominantly to a sluggish fourth quarter.

Despite a 3% dip in fourth-quarter revenue to $1.8 billion, Embraer's revenues for the year totaled $6.3 billion, a 20.8% growth on the $5.3 billion recorded in 2007. This increase, said Embraer, was due to the year's increased delivery schedule to an unprecedented 204 aircraft compared to 169 in 2007, and improved profitability of the types of airframes built.

Operating and sales expenses for the 12 months to Dec. 31 also grew in line with this increased delivery schedule, although research and development costs dropped due to the launch of the Phenom family of very light jets.

Although the year proved to be strong, Embraer's fourth quarter shows a truer picture of the company's current performance, and the effects of the global economic slowdown. The 3% drop in quarterly revenue was due predominantly to the slump in business jet demand, and revenue from that sector dropped almost 27% to $249.7 million in the last three months of 2008. At the same time commercial sales grew about 3% to $1.2 billion and defense and government revenue grew 17.5% to $176.4 million.

Commercial sales represented 65.4% of Embraer's fourth quarter revenue, a 3.7 percentage point increase on the same period in 2007.

Embraer's fourth quarter gross profit also fell 10.9% to $377.4 million and net income dropped 44.9% to $111.7 million, although this was greatly affected by a shift in the company's net financial income line item, which went from $34.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2007 to a $154 million expense in the last three months of 2008.

Embraer increased its trade accounts receivable and customer commercial financing by $112.8 million to $963 million by the end of last year, due mainly to short-term bridge loans for customers and the trade-in of three Embraer aircraft in the fourth quarter.