Ultra Electronics confident on full-year outlook

Ultra Electronics's top and bottom lines were little changed at the half-year stage, but the company sounded a confident note on the full-year outlook, pointing to a "strong" order intake during the final part of the reporting period.

Over the six months ending on 30 June, the defence and security electronics specialist saw revenues dip by 0.1% to £366.4m, which led to a 0.2% fall in its underlying profits before tax to £52.3m.

However, the company's book-to-bill ratio rose slightly, by 1.5% to 1.07 with company boss Rakesh Sharma saying that the board was "pleased" with its current order position.

According to Sharma, the company's performance would be more weighted towards the second half of 2017, due to delays in approving the Federal US budget and the impact of the recent UK general election - which had impacted progress on some contract awards.

"Nevertheless, following the strong order intake in the final part of the period, which has continued through July, we are pleased with our current order position," Sharma said.

On a per share basis, underlying profits before tax were ahead by 0.3% to 58.3p.

Sharma also flagged some additional export opportunities which had arisen, such as that for Indian defence systems, which he said was edging closer to closure.

Company efforts to drive greater efficiencies were also ongoing.

Assuming the firm's exchange rate forecasts of 1.30 for the sterling-US dollar exchange rate, management's expectations for the full-year were unchanged.

Over the reporting period, Ultra's debt pile reduced from 2.29 times the company's EBITDA one year ago to 1.78.

The interim dividend was raised by 2.8% to 14.6p.