6th Aug 2015 06:55
LONDON (Alliance News) - Defence manufacturer Cobham PLC on Thursday said its reported pretax profit was dragged lower by the acquisition of telecommunications equipment maker Aeroflex in the first half, though the same acquisition meant its revenue jumped higher and sent its underlying pretax profit up.
FTSE 250-listed Cobham said its pretax profit for the six months to the end of June was down to GBP4.0 million from GBP54.0 million a year earlier, entirely due to a surge in administrative expenses and financing costs in the half related to the Aeroflex deal. Stripping out the effects of the Aeroflex acquisition, and other exceptional costs, pretax profit for the group rose to GBP135.0 million from GBP118.0 million.
But while the deal had a one-off impact on Cobham's profit for the half, it boosted its revenue to GBP1.05 billion from GBP834.0 million and pushed its order intake for the period up to GBP960.0 million from GBP728.0 million, a 32% rise.
Excluding the contribution from Aeroflex, Cobham's organic revenue growth in the half was 0.3%. It said it made good progress on major aerial refuelling programmes in the half, with previously noted technical issues now largely resolved.
Cobham said it will pay an interim dividend of 3.05 pence per share, up from 2.904p a year earlier.
"We have delivered strong revenue and earnings growth in the first half, primarily due to our Aeroflex acquisition. We have achieved modest organic revenue growth overall driven by aerial refuelling and the Aviation Services business. While we continue to see good revenue growth from our commercial aerospace products, there are currently short term headwinds in certain of our commercial marine and land markets," said Cobham Chief Executive Bob Murphy.
"Looking further ahead the board remains confident that our leading positions in attractive markets, in particular those benefiting from the increasing demand for connectivity related mobile communications together with our continued focused investment, leave us well placed to deliver sustainable long term growth," Murphy added.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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