Cobham resilient in face of fragile market
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The aerospace specialist Cobham increased its order book to £2.5bn in its first half year to 30 June and said it had introduced a new 'excellence in delivery' programme with approximately two year payback from one-off costs of some £130-£150m.
Chief executive Andy Stevens said: "We have delivered a resilient set of first half results, despite the ongoing fragility in some commercial markets and delays in the award of certain US defence and security contracts.
"Our strategy is to build leading, long term technology positions in high growth segments within defence and security and commercial markets which position us to grow faster than the overall market. To achieve this, we will focus on a number of key strategic objectives including continued technology investment and acquisitions, portfolio optimisation and operational performance.
"We expect organic revenue growth to increase in the second half, although the rate of improvement will be dependent on the release of delayed contracts. Our commercial markets remain hard to predict but are unlikely to improve significantly in 2010. Despite the uncertain trading background, the Board continues to expect the Group to make further underlying progress in the year, underpinned by the early benefits from the 'excellence in delivery' programme.
"Our long term positions in attractive markets, together with the delivery of our strategic objectives, reinforce the Board's confidence of continuing progress over the medium term and accordingly we have once again increased the interim dividend by 10%."
Order intake in the period was £937m, 5% up on the same period in 2009; total revenue edged up 1% to £963m with underlying pre-tax profit 2% ahead at £145m.
