23rd May 2018 10:06
LONDON (Alliance News) - Babcock International Group PLC on Wednesday lifted its dividend as annual profit and revenue grew.
The defence outsourcer posted a pretax profit of GBP391.1 million for the year to March 31, up 8.0% from GBP362.1 million the year before. Revenue increased 2.5% to GBP4.66 billion from GBP4.55 billion.
As a result, Babcock raised its final dividend by 4.6% to 22.65 pence per share from 21.65p the year before. This will give a total dividend for the year of 29.5p per share, a 4.8% increase from 28.15p last year.
The FTSE 250-listed company's Aviation business saw underlying growth up 17% to GBP1.02 billion from GBP874.0 million. According to Babcock, both UK and European Defence, alongside Emergency Services, were the strongest drivers of growth in the Aviation business.
Looking ahead, Babcock has an order book of around GBP31 billion meaning 76% of the company's underlying revenue for the year ending in 2019 is already secured.
The engineering company said it will continue to focus on its international markets. Underlying international revenue increased to 28% of the group total, up from 25% the year before, but Babcock continues to target 30% of total revenue coming from overseas by 2022.
Chief Executive Archie Bethel said: "I am pleased to report another year of further progress on all fronts. Underlying revenue and profits increased to record levels with excellent cash generation, and we further strengthened the balance sheet by reducing our net debt while increasing our dividend for the seventeenth consecutive year. We ended the year with an order book and bid pipeline worth GBP31 billion, which supports our future growth prospects.
"We have always been a specialist engineering services company with a strong UK heritage but the changes we have made in the last couple of years are beginning to deliver meaningful benefits. Our new sector structure is making a real difference, we are increasingly focused on our core business areas of defence, emergency services and civil nuclear, and are on track to exceed our target of having 30% of the group's underlying revenue coming from international markets by 2022."
Shares in Babcock International were up 3.5% to 791.20 pence each Wednesday morning.
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