Ultra Electronics reports flat first half revenue and profit

5th Aug 2013 07:36

Ultra Electronics posted broadly flat pre-tax profit and revenue for the first half as procurement process constraints and uncertainty in the US and UK defence markets affected orders. The company, which serves the defence, security, transport and energy markets, reported underlying pre-tax profit of £55.4m, up 0.7% on the same period a year ago.Revenue fell 0.7% to £367.7m and underlying earnings per share rose 1.5% to 59.5p.Acquisitions contributed over 2.0%, while exchange rate movements increased revenue by a further 1.0%. In June, the group acquired Varisys, a UK business that develops products for high performance embedded computing applications. Its products and services portfolio include bespoke solutions for customers operating in the aerospace, defence, telecommunications and industrial sectors. Underlying operating profit increased by 1.0% to £57.9m but organic operating profit at constant currencies declined by 4.0%, offset by a foreign exchange contribution of 1.0% and acquisition growth of over 4.0%. The order book at the end of the period came to £877.2m, compared to £943.7m in the previous year, down 7.0%. Yet the order book cover for 2013 remains strong at over 85%.Ultra proposed an interim dividend of 12.7p, an increase of 4.1%. Chief Executive,Rakesh Sharma, said the group is performing as expected at this stage of the year and the board is "confident of its performance expectations being met for the year as a whole". Shares climbed 0.05% to 1,842p at 08:09 on Monday.RD