Final div 3.3 pence/share (Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - London, 26 Jul - The UK engineering group Babcock International said that in the full year ended March 31 underlying basic earnings per share rose to 30.8 pence from 17.7 pence a year earlier while revenue grew an organic 11% to 4.390 billion pounds.

Underlying operating profit increased 34% to 237.8 million pounds.

Contract backlog stood at 10.3 billion pounds at the end of March against 9.5 billion a year earlier.

Underlying free cash flow grew to 160.4 million pounds in the full year from 75.3 million a year earlier.

The company plans to pay a final dividend of 3.3 pence per share, taking the total dividend for the full year to 5.0 pence per share. The previous year, Babcock omitted paying a dividend.

"We have made good strategic progress, delivering another year of strong growth with cash flow ahead of expectations.

Babcock is well positioned to benefit from the sustained uplift in global defence budgets, driven by the need to recapitalise, re-equip and modernise militaries, resulting in an increase in our opportunity set," said the CEO, David Lockwood.

"We combine strong engineering know-how, high customer intimacy and extensive operational asset knowledge together with highly collaborative relationships and product development capability. This differentiated proposition is increasingly attractive to our customers. We look to the future with confidence as we continue to progress towards our medium-term targets," he added.

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(RADIOCOR) 26-07-24 18:43:25 (0633) 5 NNNN