Cobham chasing foreign markets

By KARL WEST
Updated: 17:31 EST, 4 March 2010

Cobham, which makes antennas and avionics for civil and military aircraft, is on the prowl for a joint venture partner in India as it looks to win new business in the country's growing defence market.

Chief Andy Stevens, who took the hot-seat in January, is wasting no time in making his mark and has made international expansion one of his key objectives.

The group (down 4.4p at 244.1p) recently opened an office in Delhi and is 'actively recruiting' a new domestic Indian team to chase sales opportunities.

Annual pretax profits more than doubled to £245m as Cobham raised the dividend 10pc to 5.45p.

Enlarge  

The news came amid a welter of earnings reports from Britain's engineering sector.

Engineering services group Amec spooked investors after saying it expected 2010 revenues would grow, but not as much as current forecasts.

Worries about big customers in the oil and gas sector delaying spending on projects also hit the shares, which tumbled 55p to 765.5p. Pretax profits fell 33pc to £203.5m after 2008 figures were boosted by a one-off gain. The total dividend rose 15pc to 17.7p.

Separately, construction giant Balfour Beatty recorded a small 1pc fall in annual pretax profit to £267m and hiked the dividend 8pc to 12p.

The group, which bought US consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff last year, said it was now much better insulated from any fall in public sector spending cuts in the UK following a general election as a result of that deal.

Chief executive Ian Tyler said Balfour (up 8p at 286.5p) was now a 'global player', noting just 50pc of its revenues are in the UK, 35pc in the US and the balance mainly in Hong Kong and Australia.

Power generator rental group Aggreko (down 2p at 1,040p) said 2010 profit would be better than previously expected, helped by growing demand for power in emerging markets like Africa and South America.

It notched a 28pc rise in pretax profits to £244m in 2009, and raised the dividend 25pc to 12.6p.

Heating and air conditioning equipment maker IMI reported full-year pretax profits rose 6pc to £186.2m and raised the total dividend 2pc to 21.2p.

IMI (up 21.5p at 600p) said sales volumes would struggle to beat 2009 levels in the current year, but it expects to fatten margins and profits in 2010.