Babcock profit soars amid surge in global defence spending
Babcock International has reported a jump in annual profit as the British defence giant once again benefits from a “sustained uplift” in global defence spending.
In a full-year update to markets this morning, the firm, which designs and manufactures specialist defence equipment, such as warships and submarines, said revenue was £4.44bn, up from £4.39bn the year prior.
Underlying operating profit for the year to March 31 jumped to £238m, a 34 per cent increase on last year.
The positive results come amid rising geopolitical tensions, which has seen many countries increase their defence budgets and spending on equipment supplied by the likes of Babcock and other arms manufacturers, such as BAE Systems.
The FTSE-250 firm also won a bumper £560m contract in March to refit one of the Royal Navy’s Trident nuclear submarines.
“Babcock is well positioned to benefit from the sustained uplift in global defence budgets, driven by the need to recapitalise, re-equip and modernise militaries, resulting in an increase in our opportunity set,” chief executive David Lockwood said today.
“We combine strong engineering know-how, high customer intimacy and extensive operational asset knowledge together with highly collaborative relationships and product development capability,” Lockwood added.
The firm said its expectations for 2025 remain unchanged.
“This differentiated proposition is increasingly attractive to our customers. We look to the future with confidence as we continue to progress towards our medium-term targets,” the chief executive added.
In March, the firm’s boss, David Lockwood, joined his counterpart at Airbus to call for greater defence spending, which became a feature of this summer’s general election.