BUSINESS NEWS
09 Jul 09. Work on UK aircraft carriers and Canadian submarines has enabled Babcock International to make a bullish trading statement. “Market conditions for the group as a whole remain resilient,” Babcock said, adding that trading was “consistent with our expectations at our preliminary results”. The engineering group said its marine division was trading strongly. The division has benefited from increased demand for design work from the UK’s new aircraft carrier programme, as well as its existing submarine support contract in Canada, Babcock said. Marine also drew business from the Royal Navy’s programme of warship refit and upgrade projects. Babcock also said its nuclear division was getting “a steady flow of contracts” underlining “the long-term market opportunities”. A 50 per cent drop in orders over the past year from its construction equipment business was partially offset by “increasing demand for after-market service”, the company said. The market for outage support and overhead line development in South Africa was “robust”, Babcock said. (Source: FT.com)
02 Jul 09. Coda Octopus Group, Inc. (OTC.BB:CDOC – News), a world leader in underwater port security and marine survey technology, today reported results for the second fiscal quarter and six months ending April 30, 2009. For the second fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2009, Coda Octopus Group, Inc. reported revenues of $4.3m, compared to $5.1m for the second fiscal quarter ended April 30, 2008. The Company had an operating loss of
($111,287) compared to operating income of $223,407 in the like year-ago
quarter. Net loss applicable to common shares was ($1,316,000), or ($0.03) per share in Q2 2009, compared to a loss of ($216,000), or ($0.01) per share in Q2 2008. Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization and stock based compensation and non-recurring costs (EBITDA) results for the period were $290,003 against $405,214 in Q2 2008. Weighted shares outstanding increased from 48,317,993 to 49,000,244 over the period. For the six-month period ended April 30, 2009, the Company reported revenues of $7.5m, as compared to $8.2m for the six months ending April 30, 2008. Net losses applicable to common shares were ($3.5m), or ($0.07) per share for the first half of FY 2009, compared to a loss of ($2.6m), or ($0.05) per share in the first half of FY 2008. Adjusted EBITDA results for the period, without non-recurring and non-cash charges for stock and options and exchange rate movements, were a loss of $1,100,786 against $1,533,370 for the like year-ago period. Weighted shares outstanding increased from 48,283,809 to 48,950,494 over the period. The Company said that more than 80% of the revenue decline for both the three- and six-month periods could be directly attributed to the decline in the US dollar and resulting currency adjustments. In addition, sales of the Echoscope — the Company’s patented 3D real time underwater sonar system — were
negatively affected by the inability of various states and localities to take delivery due to severe budget constraints. Jason Reid, Coda Octopus President and Chief Executive Officer, commented that, “We believe the decline in Echoscope sales is a short term phenomenon. Indeed,
worldwide demand for the product appears to be greater today that at any time in the past.” The Company also said that it had successfully restructured operations to cut SG&A going forward by more than $6 million on an annualized basis to approximately $8.2m. Reid said, “The fact that our marine products and engineering divisions have been able to both increase sales while we dramatically cut costs is very significant. Last year the Company reported an EBITDA loss of $3.9m on revenues of $16.9m. On the same revenue base going forward, we would now be able to look forward to a profit of approximately $2.2m instead of a loss.” (Source: Yahoo!)
08 Jul 09. Ultra Electronics, the acquisitive aerospace and defence e