21st May 2015 06:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - QinetiQ Group PLC Thursday reported a higher pretax profit for its last financial year after the previous year was hit by a big impairment, while revenue fell as it continued to be hit by the withdrawal of US military from Afghanistan.
The defence services company reported a pretax profit of GBP105.4 million for the year to end-March, up from GBP84.0 million a year earlier when it had booked a GBP41.9 million goodwill impairment that wasn't repeated.
Its pretax profit excluding items like impairments, restructuring costs, and a loss on the disposal of a subsidiary rose to GBP107.8 million fromGBP101.2 million, largely thanks to a big fall in net finance costs after it repaid private placement debt early.
Underlying operating profit fell to GBP11.3 million, from GBP113.7 million as revenue declined to GBP763.8 million from GBP782.6 million, as growth in its EMEA Services division was offset by a drop in revenue in the Global Products unit that's being hurt by the winding down of recent conflict zone operations by the US military.
The EMEA Services arm provides technical, testing, evaluation and training services to the defence industry.
QinetiQ still raised its full-year dividend to 5.4 pence, from 4.6p, including a final dividend of 3.6p up from 3.2p. It said this reflected its progressive dividend policy.
The company said its order book rose to GBP613.6 million by the end of the last financial year, up from GBP596.9 million at the start, and 77% of expected revenue is under contract at start of the current year, consistent with the prior year. The balance is supported by the company's pipeline of opportunities, it said.
QinetiQ appointed Steve Wadey as its new chief executive as of April 27, meaning he's had little time in the job.
"In my first few weeks at QinetiQ I've been impressed with the expertise of our people, as well as our capabilities and technologies, all of which are well matched to the dynamics in our markets. It's a company with great potential and I look forward to working with our customers to develop and grow QinetiQ to meet their changing needs," he said.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @stevemcgrath1
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