25 Nov 14. Chemring Group PLC (“Chemring” or “the Group”) provided its scheduled post-close statement in respect of the year ended 31 October 2014. The Board’s expectations for the Group’s trading performance for the year ended 31 October 2014 remain in line with guidance given in the Interim Management Statement issued on 17 September 2014. Revenue from continuing operations in the final quarter was approximately £117m, and was impacted by delays in the shipment of product from the Countermeasures facility at Kilgore, following the incident that occurred in February. For the year to 31 October 2014, revenue was approximately £475m (2013: £624.9m) and revenue from continuing operations was approximately £403m (2013: £472.3m). The Group’s order book at 31 October 2014 was approximately £486, an increase of £68m since 31 July 2014. As expected, significant orders from US and Middle East customers have been received, including an order for the Husky Mounted Detection Systems ground penetrating radar product for supply into the Middle East. At 31 October 2014, net debt was approximately £136m (2013: £248.7m). The results for the year ended 31 October 2014 are due to be announced on 22 January 2015.
27 Nov 14. Airbus Group and Dassault Aviation aim to oversee the complete sale of Airbus’s €4.8bn stake in the French planemaker by the end of next year, two people familiar with the matter said. Plans to reduce the 46.3-percent stake were recently put on hold due to market volatility and Airbus Group said earlier this month there would be a second window of opportunity in early 2015. So far it has said it plans to sell around 10 percent to institutional investors, while family-controlled Dassault Aviation has won approval from its shareholders to buy back up to another 10 percent. But both sides agree the future of the entire shareholding should be settled by the end of next year, the sources said. “The idea is to wrap up the entire operation by the end of 2015,” one of the people said, asking not to be named. Airbus and Dassault Aviation both declined to comment. Airbus inherited its stake from former state-owned Aerospatiale, and holds it on behalf of the French government in an increasingly uncomfortable arrangement that led to a decision earlier this year that it was not a strategic shareholding. Unravelling the arrangement needs the agreement of the government and co-operation from Dassault. Airbus, which has also come under pressure from at least one of its own fund shareholders to free up the resources tied up in Dassault, said recently it had held constructive talks with both the French government and Dassault on the issue. Reducing its stake would result in an increase in Dassault’s slender market float – currently 3 percent of the company, which makes Falcon business jets and Rafale warplanes. It remained unclear whether Airbus would seek to put all its remaining shareholding on the market or whether the Dassault family, which controls 50.6 percent of Dassault Aviation, would also buy part of the stock not included in the direct buyback. But one of the people familiar with the matter ruled out the emergence of a second industrial shareholder to take the place of Airbus. Family holding company Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault was not immediately available for comment. Activist hedge fund TCI wrote to Airbus Group, formerly known as EADS, in August 2013, urging it to sell its stake in Dassault and return the proceeds to Airbus shareholders. (Source: Reuters)
26 Nov 14. Qinetiq falls on worries over chief’s exit. Qinetiq was a casualty on Wednesday on growing fears that its chief executive was picking the ideal time to exit. Leo Quinn is due to leave Qinetiq in December, having joined the defence research contractor in 2009. Over the period, Qinetiq’s working capital has moved from 10 per cent of annual sales to an “unsustainable” negative 22 per cent, equivalent to a value transfer of £320m, Canaccord Genuity said. When