BAE Systems sees sales grow by 11 per cent
Sales increased by 11 per cent to £12 billion for BAE Systems in the first six months of this year.
The group has a joint venture at Hadley Castle Works in Telford, known as Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land which specialises in land combat vehicles.
Order intake in the period was £21.1bn, resulting in a record order backlog of £66.2bn.
Underlying earnings before tax grew from £1.11bn to £1,25bn.
The directors have declared an interim dividend of 11.5p per share for the half year – an increase of 11 per cent from a year earlier.
They have also approved a further share buyback programme of up to £1.5bn. This further programme is expected to roll-on after completion of the current buyback programme and complete within three years.
Chief executive Charles Woodburn said: "We've delivered a strong financial performance in the first half of the year, thanks to the outstanding efforts of our employees.
"Our global footprint, deep customer relationships and leading technologies enable us to effectively support the national security requirements and multi-domain ambitions of our government customers in an increasingly uncertain world.
"With a record order backlog and good operational performance, we're well positioned to continue delivering sustained growth in the coming years, giving us confidence to continue investing in new technologies, facilities, highly-skilled jobs and in our local communities."
BAE Systems has received new investment from the Ministry of Defence to boost technologies for the UK's future combat aircraft.
The contract extension, worth £700 million, will build on the innovative science, research and engineering already completed under the first phase of the contract delivered by UK Tempest partners BAE Systems, Leonardo UK, MBDA UK and Rolls-Royce.
Brad Greve, group finance director, said: "This is a strong set of half-year results delivering good sales and earnings growth, and giving us confidence to increase our year-end guidance for sales, underlying EBIT, underlying earnings per share and free cash flow.
"The record order backlog and continued good operational performance gives us more visibility and confidence in our three financial priorities – sales growth, margin expansion and high sustained cash conversion, operating under a disciplined capital allocation policy."
