Qinetiq Q1 in line, reaffirms full-year guidance

FTSE 250 science and engineering company Qinetiq said trading in the first quarter was in line with its expectations.

In a trading update for 31 March to date, the company said revenue under contract in the EMEA services division was similar to a year ago and as expected at this stage in the year despite some continued descoping and delays to orders.

During the period, the division won three orders for engineering support to the Wildcat, Apache and Tornado aircraft.

Qinetiq said the UK government's Strategic Defence and Security Review has brought clarity to key defence programmes but will require further savings to be delivered from ongoing defence transformation.

“This will provide future opportunities for EMEA Services to build on its strong record of delivering more for less, whilst recognising that in the short term there will continue to be uncertainty and the potential for interruptions to order flow. The division's performance as a whole is expected to remain steady this year.”

The group said full-year 2017 revenue under contract at its global products division continues to be slightly better than last year, but the performance of Global Products remains dependent on the timing and shipment of key orders.

Qinetiq reaffirmed its previous guidance for the full year to March 2017 and said expectations for this financial year remain unchanged.

At 0945 BST, Qinetiq shares were up 1.2% to 233.40p.