Qinetiq reaffirms guidance but warns defence market "uncertain"

Qinetiq reaffirmed its guidance for the full year but cautioned the UK defence market remains uncertain.

In a trading update for the third quarter, the defence technology company said that while the government’s Strategic Defence and Security Review was published in December, it is likely to take some time before its impact is clear.

The performance of the group’s EMEA Services division was in line with expectations in the period, with revenue under contract for this financial year as anticipated so far, although the division has continued to experience some delay to orders.

It won a contract with Motorola Solutions to provide monitoring, assessment and assurance services in support of the delivery of the UK Emergency Services Network and also secured a £153m five-year renewal from the UK Ministry of Defence for aircraft engineering support, as announced back in November.

In December, the company sold Cyveillance Inc. to Looking Glass Cyber Solutions for net disposal proceeds of £22m.

Qinetiq said trading in Global Products was as expected during the period, but the division’s performance is dependent on the timing and shipment of key orders in what is a shorter order cycle business.

Among the division's new orders in the period, the OptaSense business was awarded a contract to protect approximately 2,000km of pipeline, the total value of which is more than $30m.

“Overall, the board's expectations for group performance in the current financial year remain unchanged from those set out in Qinetiq's interim results announcement dated 19 November 2015,” the company said.