11 Feb 10. BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence company, gave a Saudi
Arabian official perks, including travel, property and cars, worth more than $5m in nine months, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has claimed in a legal document filed in court. The document alleges that BAE had paid this “influential” official through a Swiss bank account controlled by one of the company’s middlemen. According to the document, there was a payment of £10m and a further $9m into the account over a period of about nine months between May 2001 and early 2002. The DoJ document alleges that BAE paid a total of £135m, plus $14m to middlemen involved in winning foreign arms deals through an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands in the period after May 2001. These allegations
are contained within a “charge sheet” filed by the DoJ with the District Court of Washington after an investigation into bribery and corruption.
Last Friday BAE agreed to plead guilty to one charge of making false statements to the US Government and will pay the DoJ a $400m fine. BAE has also agreed to plead guilty to false accounting after another investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in Britain. It will pay the SFO £30m. Both plea agreements will need court approval. (Source: The Times)
10 Feb 10. Controversial former BAE Systems boss Dick Evans has banked about £1.5m from the defence group for advising it on Saudi Arabia since retiring in June 2004. Evans led BAE through the period associated with last week’s criminal charges and record £286m fines for paying sweeteners to middlemen in Saudi Arabia and Tanzania to help it win weapons contracts. Despite this, Evans is still a BAE consultant and a member of its ‘home market advisory board for Saudi Arabia’. When Evans retired as chairman in 2004, he had a pension pot worth £6.58m For this, Evans has been handsomely rewarded by BAE with consultancy fees of £156,167 in the second half of 2004, £303,000 in 2005, £317,350 in 2006, £332,400 in 2007 and £265,480 in 2008. The total is on course to top £1.5m if he was paid about the same for his advice in 2009. When Evans retired as chairman in 2004, he had a pension pot worth £6.58m, entitling him to an annual retirement payment of £341,070. Even though some leading City investors believe BAE (down 0.5p at 343.8p) should sever all ties with Evans, current chairman Dick Olver last week avoided answering whether he would wield the axe. (Source: Daily Mail)
10 Feb 10. CAE reports third quarter results for fiscal year 2010
– Net earnings of C$37.7m or C$0.15 per share
– Net debt at C$271.6m
CAE today reported financial results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2009. Net earnings were $37.7m ($0.15 per share), compared to $52.1m ($0.20 per share) in the third quarter of last year. Excluding a restructuring charge of $3.9m recorded during the quarter, net earnings were $40.3m ($0.16 per share). All financial information is in Canadian dollars.
Summary of consolidated results
(amounts in millions,
except operating margins
and per share amounts) Q3-2010 Q2-2010 Q1-2010 Q4-2009 Q3-2009
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Revenue $ 382.9 364.5 383.0 438.8 424.6
Total segment
operating income $ 64.6 62.3 72.3 79.6 77.6
Restructuring charge $ (3.9) (1.1) (27.2) – –
Earnings before
interest and income
taxes (EBIT) $ 60.7 61.2 45.1 79.6 77.6
As a % of revenue % 15.9 16.8 11.8 18.1 18.3
Net earnings $ 37.7 39.1 27.2 52.7 52.1
Diluted EPS $ 0.15 0.15 0.11 0.21 0.20
Backlog $ 2,917.1 3,034.8 3,278.2 3,181.8 2,942.8
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Comparative periods of fiscal 2009 have been