19th Nov 2015 08:00
LONDON (Alliance News) - Defence services company QinetiQ Group PLC on Thursday said it managed to deliver a solid set of interim results against a difficult market backdrop, as both profit and revenue increased but its order intake slumped.
The FTSE 250-listed company said its pretax profit for the half to the end of September was GBP48.3 million, up from GBP44.4 million a year before, as revenue rose to GBP370.9 million from GBP365.6 million. Amid an environment of tighter defence and security budgets, however, order intake in the half was down to GBP228.4 million from GBP320.5 million, though QinetiQ said this came against a tough prior-year comparison.
QinetiQ said about two-thirds of the order intake decline was attributable to the timing of multi-year contract awards, and noted it secured a GBP153.0 million five-year contract renewal from the UK's Ministry of Defence post the end of the half.
The group said it will pay an interim dividend of 1.9 pence per share, up from 1.8p.
"This is a good trading result in a challenging market environment and our expectations for group performance in the current financial year remain unchanged," said Steve Wadey, QinetiQ's chief executive.
By Sam Unsted; [email protected]; @SamUAtAlliance
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