Senior ready for defence cuts with £48m profit

British engineer Senior today got over the sombre mood in the defence sector by reporting healthy sales growth and raising its profit forecasts for this year.

The company, whose aerospace operations supply customers including Boeing and Airbus, posted a pre-tax profit for 2009 of £48 million and remained upbeat despite concerns by many that the big defence budgets of the US and Britain face cuts.

Senior, which also makes components for diesel engines through its Flextonics unit, said the year had started ahead of expectations and as a result believed its performance would be in line with 2009, despite having forecast a more difficult year.

It said its aerospace division saw healthy sales growth in the military and defence sector during 2009 while the market for commercial aircraft was mixed.

Senior said Flextonics sales in North America and Europe were poor in the first half of the year as vehicle sales fell but recovered modestly in the second half thanks to government incentive schemes and lower destocking by customers.

The company is paying an unchanged final dividend of 1.7p a share, making a total for the year of 2.6p.