4th Aug 2015 06:46
LONDON (Alliance News) - Aerospace engineering company Meggitt PLC on Tuesday said its pretax profit jumped in the first half of 2015 as revenue increased, though the company's order intake was weaker in the period.
The FTSE 100-listed group said its pretax profit for the half to the end of June was up to GBP115.8 million from GBP98.2 million, driven by a 10% rise in revenue in the half to GBP793.7 million from GBP718.9 million. Order intake for Meggitt, however, fell by 1% in the half to GBP775.3 million from GBP782.7 million.
Meggitt said it saw good organic revenue growth in its civil aerospace and military franchises in the half, which was offset by an 18% decline in its energy business.
The group said it would pay an interim dividend of 4.60 pence per share, up from 4.25p a year earlier, on the back of the rise in pretax profit.
"First half revenue growth of 10% was in line with expectations, with military revenue stronger than expected offsetting the effect of challenging trading conditions in the energy market. We remain confident in delivering low to mid-single digit organic revenue growth for the full year, as guided at the beginning of the year," said Chief Executive Stephen Young.
In addition to publishing its half-year results, Meggitt said it has won two new contracts. The first is a USD42.1 million deal with US defence contractor Lockheed Martin UK to produce 40 millimetre Case-Telescoped linkless Ammunition Handling Systems for the Scout armoured vehicle programme. That deal is worth USD42.1 million to Meggitt, with production deliveries to start in 2016 and to continue through to 2021.
The group has also won a GBP10.2 million deal with the UK Ministry of Defence to upgrade British Army small arms training systems. The upgrade will support next generation virtual military training systems and Meggitt's simulated weapons inventory.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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