* 2016 trading profit could be 12 pct lower than consensus
* Affected by weak demand for electronics products
* Shares fall 17 pct (Adds CFO comment, analyst comment, share price,)
By Sarah Young
LONDON, Oct 24 (Reuters) - British aerospace and defencecompany Cobham cut its profit forecast for the secondtime this year blaming continued weak demand for someelectronics products, knocking its shares and raising questionsabout 2017.
Cobham is awaiting new management. After an earlier profitwarning prompted an emergency rights issue, the board said chiefexecutive Bob Murphy would be replaced. His exit will followthat of CFO Simon Nicholls, who had already resigned.
The company said on Monday that 2016 trading profit couldcome in as much as 12 percent lower than a previous consensusforecast, prompting analysts to question Cobham's futurefinancial health.
Shares in Cobham fell 17 percent to 133 pence at 0914 GMT,their lowest level since June. The stock had hit an 11-year lowof 126.6 pence in May, and is down 45 percent since thebeginning of 2016, lagging a 3 percent rise in Britain's mid-capindex of which it is a component.
While new management could help improve forecasting, therewere concerns about what they find when they arrive, said oneanalyst who declined to be named.
"The worry is that they'll be a kitchen sinking when the newmanagement start in January time, in which case it (Cobham)could be under quite a bit of financial stress again," theanalyst said.
Cobham, which made its name in the 1930s developingair-to-air refuelling techniques, raised new finance from arights issue in June to prevent its net borrowing to coreearnings coming close to a covenant level agreed with itslenders.
Any further earnings downgrades could bring it towards thatlevel again, said analysts, but management played down thatrisk.
"We're in a tough spot at the moment," said CFO Nicholls."We don't at this stage see any fundamental or medium termissues in terms of the capital structure of the group."
Cobham warned on Monday that its annual trading profit wouldnow come in at between 255 million pounds ($311 million) and 275million pounds, as much as 12 percent lower than a previousconsensus forecast of 291 million pounds, and compared to the322 million pounds it made in 2015.
Both Cobham's new CEO David Lockwood, current boss oftechnology company Laird, a company which warned onprofit earlier this month, and new CFO David Mellors will joinno later than Jan. 1 2017.
Cobham blamed the most recent downgrade on a range offactors -- low demand from shipping customers for itscommunications products and from defence customers for itselectronics products, plus slower than expected progress on theBoeing U.S. KC-46 air-to-air refuelling system on which it isworking.
It is also making slower and more costly than expectedimprovement in its Wireless unit, which makes equipment used tomaintain mobile signal in difficult environments. ($1 = 0.8194 pounds) (Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton/RuthPitchford)
