30 Jan 03. Thales Communications’ bid for the UK MoD’s EW programme Soothsayer, worth some £150m, has been further strengthened with the signing of an exclusive teaming agreement with Marshall Specialist Vehicles Ltd (MSV), of Cambridge. A key element of Thales’ solution is the comprehensive vehicle mounted equipment infrastructure that will support the efficient deployment and operation of Soothsayer. MSV brings to the Thales team extensive experience of installation of military equipment into shelters and cabins that are required to operate with high reliability in harsh battlefield environments.(Full details in our next Military Vehicles Update)
4 Feb 03. BAE SYSTEMS North America it has reached a definitive agreement to purchase all of the stock of MEVATEC Corporation of Huntsville, Alabama for $82m
in cash, which includes an element of potential deferred consideration. MEVATEC is a fast-growing provider of professional technical services to the Department of Defense; civilian, federal, state, and local government agencies; and commercial businesses. MEVATEC is a leader in missile defense, joint interoperability, outsourcing, and business process re-engineering. The acquisition, which will be funded from existing cash and debt resources, will complement BAE SYSTEMS established business and will expand the company’s professional services and engineering technology operations.
3 Feb 03. Boeing warned on Thursday that the downturn in commercial aviation “remains severe” and would lead to steeply lower earnings this year and next, with any market recovery pushed back to 2005. Phil Condit, chairman and chief executive, said 2003 “looks a lot like 2002 from the order standpoint . . . we could see a pick-up of orders in 2004 with deliveries in 2005”.
4 Feb 03. Chemring Group PLC Tuesday said its pretax profit for the year to Dec. 31 was £5.4m, (2001: £9.4m). The company maintained its dividend at 6.7 pence. Commenting on the results, Ken Scobie, Chemring chairman, said: “The group’s excellent growth since 1998 was stalled this year by the impact of Kilgore’s plant rebuild following the incident in 2001. “The pressed flare facility, which generates 70% of Kilgore’s total decoy output, is now complete and is in production. The extruded flare facility, which makes up the balance, is currently in low-rate production and is expected to reach full capacity by May at the latest.
6 Feb 03. EDO Corp. acquired privately-held Advanced Engineering and Research Associates Inc. for about $38m in cash. EDO said in a press release Thursday that the acquisition will be accretive to 2003 earnings. Advanced Engineering, which has long-term contracts with the Marine Corps and the Coast Guard, will become a part of EDO’s Systems and Analysis Group. In 2002, Advanced Engineering had about $50m in revenue.
6 Feb 03. Goodrich Corp. (NYSE:GR – News) reversed a year-earlier net loss caused by a one-time charge in the fourth quarter and issued a profit warning for all of 2003. The aerospace supplier late Thursday reported fourth-quarter net income of $11.7m, or 11 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier net loss of $54.4m, or 53 cents a share. Revenue jumped 12% to $1.18bn, (2001: $1.05bn)on Goodrich’s $1.5bn purchase in October of TRW Inc.’s (TRW) aeronautical-systems
businesses. For all of 2002, net income was $117.9 million, or $1.14 a share, compared with $289.2m, or $2.76 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 6.6% to $ 3.91bn from $4.19bn. Earnings from continuing operations, excluding items, were $244m, or $2.31 a share, versus $329m, or $3.08 a share, in 2001.
3 Feb 03. Harris Corporation (NYSE:HRS), announced that its Sierra(tm)-based cryptographic module provided secure communication during the U.S. Government’s recent demonstration of the Jointt Tactical Radio System (JTRS Step 2C radio system. The radio was developed by BAE SYSTEMS’ Communication, Navigation, Identification and Reconnaissance group in Wayne, Ne