17 Mar 10. Grim winter weather affected deliveries at Chemring at the start of 2010 but trading in the first four months of the defence group’s year still increased by 5 per cent as new orders began to flow. For the four months to February 28, Chemring said bad weather in the first few weeks of 2010 had disrupted production at most of its US and UK subsidiaries, affecting deliveries in January and February. The impact would be made good in the next two to three months of trading, said the missile defence and pyrotechnics maker. The weather failed to damp trading, which was up 5 per cent in the period on a constant currency basis compared with the same period last year. At the same time, Chemring said its outlook for 2010 remained in line with expectations. Its order book was £653m ($1bn), up 17 per cent compared with this time last year. Net debt – up at £265m due in part to an acquisition – was expected to fall in the coming months, it said. Chemring’s US countermeasures business, which makes flares to protect combat jets from missile attacks and has benefited from US operations in Iraq, continued to perform well, the group said. Alloy Surfaces, its US maker of special material decoys, generated substantial growth in revenue compared with the previous year because of the early placement of multiyear contracts in 2009.
Kilgore Flares, its US flares business, benefited from two recent contract wins from the Department of Defense. The order book at Kilgore Flares is now 163 per cent higher than at the same time last year, Chemring said. The company’s energetics business also did well, thanks in part to strong growth at its US subsidiary Niitek, bought in 2008. Niitek won its first export order in December to supply the Canadian armed Forces with a ground-penetrating radar device to detect roadside bombs.
Analysts at Investec, the company’s broker, said they expected Chemring to achieve pre-tax profits of £126.8m on turnover of £624.6m for the year. Chemring shares slipped 51p on Wednesday to £33.44. (Source: FT.com)
10 Mar 10. Nexter 2009 Results. Nexter reports strong growth. Order Book: €2.508m (THREE YEARS OF ACTIVITY). The Nexter Systems Board of Directors met on Tuesday, March 9 to approve the Nexter Group consolidated financial statements for the 2009 fiscal year. Orders received by the Nexter Group during the 2009 fiscal year totalled €1,286m, compared with €560m in 2008. This 130% increase is the result not only of excellent order levels from our French customer base, but also the strong growth seen in export sales, which totalled €193m for the year. The increase has also been driven by the weapons systems range development policy, which has already resulted in initial orders for fifteen highly protected ARAVIS® vehicles, twenty 105mm light canons and fifteen SH20 retractable mounts for helicopters. Consolidated turnover for the Nexter Group totalled €887m in 2009 (€579m in 2008). This 53% growth in Group consolidated revenue reflects increased deliveries of Armored Infantry Combat Vehicles (VBCI in French) and Caesar® canons, as well as armed forces equipment operational readiness services. For the fourth consecutive year, the Nexter Group is able to report consolidated operating profit in excess of 10% of revenue, thus confirming its ability to deliver stable and consistent profitability. Current operating profit (excluding completed contracts) was 12.5% in 2009. This performance also reflects the degree of control exercised by the company over its contracts. Consolidated net income for the Nexter Group was €141 million for the 2009 fiscal year. This income takes account of the high level of expenditure devoted to new product research and development (11% of consolidated revenue). The Nexter Group order book of €2,508m represents approximately 3 years of work.
15 Mar 10. Alliant Techsystems (ATK) plans to reorganize itself into four operating groups April 1 to better align with its customers’requirements, the