BAE Systems updates market: Defence company says earnings will rise this year
BAE Systems said today that trading this year is matching up to management expectations, with earnings set to rise by between five and 10 per cent compared to last year.
The defence company said export activity continues to be supported by the UK government and added: "Although there can be no certainty as to the timing of orders, discussions with current and prospective operators of the Typhoon aircraft continue to support the group's expectations for additional Typhoon contract awards."
BAE was forced to cut 371 UK jobs last year, as part of plans to scale back its production of Typhoon fighter jets – the firm estimated sales of Typhoon would reduce from approximately £1.3bn in 2015 to around £1.1bn in 2016. However, the company noted today that a Typhoon support partnership agreement, expected to be worth £2.1bn over a ten year period, was agreed with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in July.
Among projects in the pipeline is the next Saudi British defence co-operation programme – the group said discussions between BAE Systems, the UK government and the Saudi Arabian government are progressing to "define the scope and terms" of the next five-year programme.
In the US the defence market outlook remains positive, BAE said, and the production ramp up on a number of the group's long term programmes is progressing to plan – in August the company delivered a sixth ship under its commercial shipbuilding contracts, with the remaining two ships expected to be completed in 2017.
Meanwhile, over the weekend it was revealed that BAE had been given a further £1.3bn by the MoD to start building Britain’s next generation of nuclear submarines.
An interim dividend of 8.6p per share will be paid on 30 November.