Ultra, the international defence, security, transport and energy company, today holds its Annual General Meeting at 10.00 a.m. and provides the following trading commentary.
As previously disclosed, the Board’s expectations remain for the Group to make modest progress in underlying revenue and operating profit at constant currencies in 2018 after investing for the future through increased R&D and capital expenditure. As guided, the Group’s trading and cash performance will be more heavily weighted to the second half of the year.
Conditions in Ultra's markets have remained as noted on 5 March 2018 in the 2017 preliminary results announcement. A Continuing Resolution to US Federal funding was in place for most of the first quarter of the year until the US budget was signed on 23 March 2018.
The Group secured a higher volume of orders in the first quarter compared to recent years and this resulted in an improved order book of £933m at the end of March 2018 compared to £914m at the start of the year, despite a foreign exchange headwind.
As part of the buyback announced on 5 March 2018, the Group has, as at close of business on 24 April 2018, purchased for cancellation 2,963,676 shares at a total cost of £41.1m.
Ultra will announce its interim results on 6 August 2018.
Enquiries:
Douglas Caster, Executive Chairman
020 8813 4307
Amitabh Sharma, Group Finance Director
Susan McErlain, Corporate Affairs Director
07836 522 722
James White, MHP Communications
020 3128 8756