Meggitt Plc Reports FY13 adj PBT £377.8M v £366.0M y/y; Rev £1.64B v £1.65Be
- Final dividend £0.1275 v £0.1180 y/y.
- Net debt reduced by £78m. The net debt/EBITDA ratio (as calculated on a covenant basis) is 1.2x v 1.3x y/y.
- Total R&D expenditure increased to £134.9m v £122.0m y/y reflecting strong win rate on new programmes.
- Comment: he Group achieved continued growth in revenue and underlying profit despite some operational and end market-related challenges. The Meggitt Production System, launched in 2013, has made an excellent start, and we are already starting to see improvements in quality and delivery in a number of our businesses. We have emerged from an intensive bid cycle resulting in technology sales into a significant number of new aircraft programmes. Many involve a full suite of Meggitt capabilities, exceeding the shipset content of their predecessors, and the resulting high level of investment in product development and capacity expansion will serve to deliver further good growth in 2014 and beyond. As a sign of our continuing confidence in the prospects for the Group, we are recommending an increase in the full-year dividend of 8%