logo-loader

Aerospace engineer Meggitt working on ventilator for coronavirus patients

Published: 18:50 19 Mar 2020 AEDT

Meggitt PLC -

Aerospace engineer Meggitt PLC (LON:MGGT) said it has put in place measures to “tightly manage the business” through the coronavirus outbreak and said it was trying to help with the NHS’s call for more medical ventilators. 

Meggitt, which mainly makes components for military and civil aircraft but does have some medical technology experience, said it was leading a consortium of UK aerospace suppliers working to develop and produce large volumes of a ventilator after the government called for help from industry to try and produce 20,000 new machines to treat coronavirus patients in as little as two weeks.

In light of the current market uncertainty, the FTSE 250 group said it was “too early to provide earnings guidance” for the full year.

"In light of the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the global economy and the wider aerospace sector, our focus in recent weeks has been on ensuring the safety of our employees and the continuity of our operating businesses worldwide."

As revealed in its results last month, the company had net debt including leases of £911mln at the end of December, of which £758mln was bank and other borrowings net of cash and £153mln related to leases.  

Net debt was 1.5 times underlying profits (EBITDA) on a covenant basis, compared with a banking covenant limit of 3.5 times, with interest well covered.

At year end, bank facilities of £1.56bn provided headroom of £806mln above bank borrowings, with US$275mln of debt maturing in 2020.

Australian Strategic Materials signs US$600 million LoI

Rowena Smith, CEO and managing director of Australian Strategic Materials Ltd (ASX:ASM, OTC:ASMMF), joins Jonathan Jackson in the Proactive studio to discuss the company’ s Dubbo Project, in Central West New South Wales. This project aims to extract and process critical minerals and rare earth...

6 hours, 14 minutes ago