New contract wins boost Ultra Electronics FY profits

Ultra Electronics reported a rise in full-year profit and revenue on Tuesday as it secured a number of new contract wins.

In the year to the end of December 2019, underlying pre-tax profit ticked up 3.8% to £105.3m on revenue of £825.4m, up 7.7% on 2018. On a statutory basis, pre-tax profit surged 113.6% to £91m.

Ultra said all three of its business units showing good progress in revenue, with Aerospace & Infrastructure particularly strong, driven by sales in its high pressure pure air generating (HiPPAG) units for the F-35.

The order book grew 4% to £1.02bn, or 10.7% on an organic basis, and the company lifted its total dividend per share by 5% to 54.2p. Order book growth was put down to continued strong markets, particularly in North America, and continued customer demand for Ultra’s technologies and capabilities.

The group said it entered 2020 with a very high level of order cover at 71% versus 66% in 2019, providing it with good visibility for the coming year.

Chief executive Simon Pryce: "2019 was a busy year for Ultra, and one in which we made great progress. We defined our ONE Ultra strategy and started our Focus; Fix; Grow transformation journey, made good progress on a number of our change initiatives and continued to identify longer term opportunities for enhanced growth and improved efficiency. At the same time, we delivered a good set of outcomes for our stakeholders.

"We enter 2020 with an enhanced, engaged and motivated team and a strong order book. In addition to focusing on improved delivery, we will be accelerating investment in internal R&D and underlying IT infrastructure as well as process standardisation and excellence."