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07 May 15. BAE Systems plc – 2015 Annual General Meeting. BAE Systems plc held its Annual General Meeting in Farnborough, Hampshire, UK. At the meeting, Chairman, Sir Roger Carr and Chief Executive, Ian King, commented on the performance of the Group in 2014, as detailed in the results announcement published on 19 February 2015, and outline the continued progress in the Group in the year to date.
Ian King, Chief Executive, will say: “Our business is making good progress in 2015. We continue to win new business, meet key milestones on our major programmes and develop technologies and skills that underpin our future success.”
Other than for exchange translation, trading for the period has been consistent with management expectations at the time of the 2014 results announcement and the Group’s outlook remains unchanged. The Group’s underlying earnings per share are expected to be marginally higher than in 2014, including some reliance on anticipated naval and aircraft orders. Following the strong performance in the first half of 2014 that resulted from good programme execution on the Typhoon programme, trading performance in 2015 is expected to have greater second half bias.
Key points in 2015 to date:
• £112m extension to Typhoon Availability Service contract until early 2016;
• £165m contract to deliver capability enhancements for the Eurofighter Typhoon, with an order value of £72m for BAE Systems;
• £859m demonstration phase for the Royal Navy’s Type 26 global combat ship programme;
• Selected by Boeing to provide the Remote Electronic Units for the 777X aircraft, resulting in the Group developing the complete suite of flight control electronics for the aircraft’s fly-by-wire system;
• In 2014, BAE Systems was selected for the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle III and Family of Weapon Sight-Individual (ENVG III/FWS-I) programme. The awards, worth up to $434m over five years, were subsequently protested. The most recent protest has now been denied, enabling the contract to proceed.
• Completion of disposal of 75% interest in Land Systems South Africa for a cash consideration of approximately £36m;
• Strategic assessment initiated of manpower and services businesses within the US-managed Intelligence & Security sector;
• BAE Systems continues to review the future shipbuilding outlook in its Australian business to assess the options to address an anticipated workload reduction later this year with the completion of the Landing Helicopter Dock programme:
• BAE Systems 37.5% share of recent contracts signed in Egypt and Qatar by the MBDA guided weapons joint venture total Euro1.2bn.
Half-year results
BAE Systems will announce its financial results for the half year ending 30 June 2015 on 30 July 2015.
06 May 15. GD Withdrawals Show Strength, Analysts Say. Last month, General Dynamics withdrew from the US Army’s Rifleman radio competition, just shortly after the company left the competition for the T-100, the T-X trainer replacement program based on the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 design. Dropping out of two high visibility, potentially lucrative contracts could be seen as a retrenchment for General Dynamics, but Wall Street analysts said the moves indicate the strength of the company’s position. Myles Walton, a research analyst with Deutsche Bank, said General Dynamics made a conscious decision to focus on projects with higher profit margins.
“I think they’re relatively positive developments in terms of management being able to make the decision” to focus on programs with better rates of return, Walton said. “It’s a good thing to say ‘no’ every once in a while.”
Asked if GD had grown more selective about the proposals it bids, a spokesperson for General