7th May 2008 12:00
Cobham PLC07 May 2008 7 May 2008 INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT At the Annual General Meeting of Cobham plc ('Cobham', 'the Group') at 12.00noon today the following Interim Management Statement will be delivered: "Consistent with the healthy conditions in our chosen markets reported at the2007 preliminary results, the Group has continued to grow strongly in the firstquarter of 2008 and is trading in line with the Board's expectations. In 2008 the Group has announced some important new business developments: •On 29 February its all-digital hose and drogue refuelling system was chosen for the US Air Force multibillion dollar tanker programme. The total value to Cobham over the life of the programme would be up to $1 billion; •On 6 March it received a $54 million contract release for the supply of its current digital VIC-3 vehicle intercom system for the US Army; •On 27 March it was awarded air refuelling and aircraft conversion contracts worth approximately £150 million relating to the provision of an advanced air refuelling and transport capability to the UK Royal Air Force. A cash reimbursement of the bid costs has been received (see note 2); •The following acquisitions, announced in 2007, were completed this year: Sensor and Antenna Systems, Lansdale for $240 million on 25 February and S-TEC Corporation for $38 million on 3 January. A project has commenced to relocate Chelton Flight Systems based in Idaho, USA to the S-TEC facility in Texas, USA to create an avionics "Centre of Excellence"; •There were two further acquisitions in 2008: SPARTA Inc. on 16 January for $416 million, which is expected to complete in the second quarter, and MMI Research on 7 April for £16.6 million. At the end of March 2008, the Group's order book had increased to just under£2.1 billion, up from £1.8bn at 31 December 2007. Excluding acquired companies,this represents an increase of 14%. At the end of the first quarter 2008, Cobham had moved to a net debt position of£30 million (31 December 2007 net cash: £77.9 million). This was due to cashoutflows relating to acquisitions, partly offset by cash generated by thebusiness. Proforma net debt at the end of the first quarter, assuming thecompletion of the SPARTA Inc acquisition, would have been approximately £220million. The Group retains considerable balance sheet strength for organicgrowth and to finance further acquisitions. Given the strength of Cobham's order book and the healthy state of the Group'smarkets, the Board remains confident of achieving its growth targets in 2008". The Board is pleased to announce the appointment of Eleanor Evans to theposition of Cobham Chief Legal Officer and Company Secretary, with effect from12 May. After 7 years as Chairman and a total of 18 years on the Board of Cobham, GordonPage will retire as Chairman at the conclusion of today's Annual GeneralMeeting, remaining a Non-executive Director of Cobham until he retires from theBoard in November 2008. David Turner, the Deputy Chairman, will take over withimmediate effect as announced on 19 November 2007. The Board would like to thankGordon for his outstanding contribution, support and dedication to the Groupover the last 18 years. - ends -ENQUIRIES Cobham plc +44 (0)1202 857738 (on 7 May)Allan Cook, Chief Executive +44 (0)1202 882020Warren Tucker, Chief Financial Officer +44 (0)1202 882020Julian Wais, Director of Investor Relations +44 (0)1202 857998 Weber Shandwick FinancialSusan Ellis +44 (0)20 7067 0700 NOTES 1.Cobham plc is an international company engaged in the development, delivery and support of advanced aerospace and defence systems for land, sea and air platforms. The Company specialises in the provision of components, subsystems and services that keep people safe, improve communications and enhance the capability of aerospace and defence platforms. 2.Cobham has received just under £10 million as a cash reimbursement of its contract bid costs for the UK Royal Air Force air refuelling contract, representing the amount previously expensed. This will be recognised separately in underlying earnings, largely offset by provisions to recognise risk in the early years of the programme. 3.This document contains 'forward-looking statements' with respect to the financial condition, results of operations and business of Cobham and to certain of Cobham's plans and objectives with respect to these items. Forward-looking statements are sometimes but not always identified by their useof a date in the future or such words as 'anticipates', 'aims', 'due', 'could','may', 'should', 'expects', 'believes', 'intends', 'plans', 'targets', 'goal',or 'estimates'. By their very nature, forward-looking statements are inherentlyunpredictable, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relateto events and depend on circumstances that may or will occur in the future. There are various factors that could cause actual results and developments todiffer materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-lookingstatements. These factors include, but are not limited to, changes in theeconomies, political situations and markets in which the Group operates; changesin government priorities due to programme reviews or revisions to strategicobjectives: changes in the regulatory or competition frameworks in which theGroup operates; the impact of legal or other proceedings against or which affectthe Group; changes to or delays in programmes in which the Group is involved;the completion of acquisitions and divestitures and changes in exchange rates. All written or verbal forward-looking statements, made in this document or madesubsequently, which are attributable to Cobham or any other member of the Groupor persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety bythe factors referred to above. Cobham does not intend to update theseforward-looking statements. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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