QinetiQ says orders strong, buys Naimuri for £25m

The defence and security engineer said Covid-19 disrupted its markets, affecting revenue and profit in the three months to the end of June. But in a statement before its annual general meeting the company said cost management reduced the impact on profit and supported a strong cash performance.

The Europe, Middle East and Africa services business had limited impact from Covid-19 because it has long-term contracts and does critical work for governments. Activities such as flying hours in Germany were reduced but much of this has now restarted, the FTSE 250 company said.

The global products division suffered greater disruption causing delays to customer deliveries but revenues grew, QinetiQ said. It did not provide financial guidance but said it would do so as soon as possible.

"Order intake throughout the first quarter continued to be strong, despite Covid-19 related disruption in all of our markets," QinetiQ said. "Although revenue and profit have been impacted by the disruption, the proactive and robust cost management actions taken have reduced the impact on profitability and delivered a strong cash performance."

QinetiQ is paying £25m to buy Naimuri on a cash-free, debt-free basis. The business provides cloud-based services and technology for British intelligence and law enforcement. The Manchester-based company expects more than £9m of revenue and £2m of earnings for the year to the end of July.

The company said said: "We will invest and build upon Naimuri's strong capabilities in data analytics, data intelligence and agile software development to meet customer needs and drive growth in both the security and defence sectors."

QinetiQ shares fell 3% to 289.80p at 08:25 BST.