Meggitt confident following strong aerospace recovery

AEROSPACE supplier Meggitt, which has an operation in Coventry, has seen markets improve following a recovery in its principal sector.

The group, which supplies high performance components and sub-systems for the aerospace, defence and energy markets, said the improvement suggested further growth in the year ahead.

In a statement covering the period from January 1 to April 25, chairman Sir Colin Terry said: “2011 saw a continued strong recovery in civil aerospace and energy, with reported revenue up 25% and order intake up 26%.

“Both revenues and orders were up 12% year on year on an organic (at constant currency and excluding the effect of acquisitions) basis. As a result, the group achieved underlying profit before tax growth of 26%, and underlying EPS growth of 15%.”

He said the past year had seen good progress in the integration of the Pacific Scientific Aerospace (PacSci) acquisition, which completed in April. This resulted in synergy targets being increased by 25% to a run-rate of $22.5m per annum by the end of 2014.

The recent award by Airbus of the engine and auxiliary power unit fire protection system for the A320neo is a further endorsement of the strength of the combined business, he added.

Growth rates in both order intake and revenue in the first quarter of 2012 were in line with expectations, which Sir Colin said gave the group confidence it would deliver full year revenue growth in excess of 10% including the full year effect of PacSci.

“Within this, we continue to expect organic revenue growth of 6-7%, in line with our medium term guidance.

“The financial position of the group remains strong, and we expect further improvement driven by our ongoing focus on cash generation,” he said.