Cobham says trading in line with expectations

Cobham said trading in 2017 was generally in line with expectations after the aerospace and defence supplier issued a string of profit warnings and was forced to raise funds from shareholders.

In a short update for the 10 months to the end of October, Cobham said there was not change to its expectations for the business this year. The company, which suffered a loss of £848m last year, said it was working on its turnaround plan.

In February the company published its fifth profit warning in just over a year. The problems were caused by strategic errors and operational problems from a series of costly acquisitions that left it in danger of breaching banking covenants. The company bought breathing space by raising £1bn in two rights issues.

The company's top team was cleared out and David Lockwood, who took over as chief executive in December 2016 is reviewing Cobham's businesses.

He has written down the value of many of the businesses Cobham bought by £574m and has booked a charge of £150m against its biggest contract – the inflight refuelling systems for the US Air Force's KC-46 aerial tankers.

Cobham said: "The group's performance in the first ten months of 2017 has been largely as expected. There remains a range of potential outcomes for full year performance and, as in prior years, this includes a significant level of trading activity in the final two months of the year.

"Overall, the board's expectations for group performance in 2017 remain unchanged."