Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC (LON:ULE) has highlighted a record order book and said its transformation is “delivering ahead of expectations” amid a better-than-predicted first half.
In its results for the six months to July 2, the defence and security engineering group reported a pre-tax profit of £56.5mln, up 18% year-on-year, while revenues rose 4.7% on an organic basis to £404.5mln.
READ: Ultra Electronics says trading tops expectations
The company also reported that its order book had risen 14.3% to a record £1.27bn, while also highlighting that it had “very strong order cover”.
“As flagged in our 5 July trading update, demand in our core defence & critical detection markets have remained robust. This together with our focused strategy and technology investment is driving expansion in our £12bn sales pipeline,” Ultra Electronics chief executive Simon Pryce said in a statement.
“We delivered good underlying revenue growth in the period and operational performance was strong, despite the mainly COVID-19 driven operational inefficiencies in Maritime which have now been broadly resolved. Our Focus; Fix; Grow transformation programme is already delivering ahead of plan and we are now more confident in our improvement potential with a better payback than originally anticipated. This should allow us to accelerate top-line growth and gain market share through additional investment in research & development, improved operational delivery and by further optimising our cost base.
“Our operating and financial performance already reflects improved execution from our transformation programme and supports our aspiration to continue to drive above market growth and margin expansion over time. We are increasingly confident about Ultra's future prospects and our ability to deliver excellent and sustainable value for all of our stakeholders," Pryce added.