12th Nov 2013 09:53
LONDON (Alliance News) - Babcock International Group PLC Tuesday said its first half pretax profits rose 32%, with the engineering company's order book stable and a good proportion of revenue for the next two years already contracted.
Babcock increased its interim dividend by 10% to 6.9 pence, up from 6.3p this time last year.
The engineering company, which supplies the defence, energy, telecommunications, transport and education sectors, said it made a GBP105.9 million pretax profit for the six months ended September 30, compared with GBP80.4 million for the corresponding period last year. Revenue increased to GBP1.58 billion from GBP1.45 billion.
"We delivered strong growth in revenue and profit with all our divisions moving ahead and fueling further increases in shareholder value. The continued buoyancy of our order book and bid pipeline reflects both the strength of our markets, where budget-constrained public and private sector customers demand suppliers that can deliver maintained or enhanced value-for-money solutions, and our clear leadership of the UK engineering support services industry," Peter Rogers, chief executive, said in a statement.
"We have excellent revenue visibility and our business model, operational scale, wide-ranging experience, track record and powerful balance sheet mean that we are well placed to generate further growth this year and in the longer-term future," Rogers added.
Net debt was slightly lower at GBP572.2 million, compared with GBP581.1 million for the corresponding period last year, while the company's order book was broadly stable at GBP12.0 billion, if slightly down on the GBP12.5 billion reported last half year. Babcock also said it has already contracted around 90% of its anticipated revenue for 2013/14, as well as around 50% for 2014/15.
Babcock aid the order book currently excludes forward work programmes in the Marine and Technology division, which are covered by its terms of business agreement. The programmes will form part of the new Maritime Support Delivery Framework contract under negotiation with the UK Ministry of Defence, which Babcock expects to add approximately GBP2.0 billion to the order book in the first half of the 2014/15 financial year.
Basic earnings per share were up 27% to 25.6 pence.
Babcock shares were Tuesday quoted at 1,277.00 pence, down 1.1%.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
Copyright © 2013 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Babcock