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LONDON (Alliance News) - Speciality engineering products and services company MS International PLC Wednesday said it has still not seen any improvement in the defence market, and as a result expectations for revenue from its defence division to be broadly flat, remain unchanged.
In a statement to shareholders at its annual general meeting, the company said its defence division continues to face tough times.
"The tough times continue and whilst we anticipate the revenue for the 'defence' division for the year being similar to that reported last year, overall margins in the division are expected to be less favourable, owing to the current product mix," said Executive Chairman Michael Bell in a statement.
Bell said that the group maintains substantial cash reserves which will "see it through these tough testing times," so that it can continue to invest wisely in the business.
Last month, the company posted a lowered pretax profit for the 53 weeks ended May 3, hit by a drop in revenues as its defence division continued to face "extremely tough times."
MS International's largest division, defence, continues to be hit by challenging global defence markets, and while the company said it has already reduced costs in the division, in June it said it would be "unrealistic to expect the current year to be any easier" as defence budgets continued to be squeezed.
In its statement Wednesday, the company said that outside the defence division its other divisions - Forgings and Petrol Station Superstructures - continue to perform in line with its expectations.
"Reassuringly, the number of business opportunities we are either bidding or tracking continues to grow and performance test results from recent new product trials are most encouraging," said Bell.
MS International shares were down 1.1% at 19188 pence Wednesday.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; rowenaharrisdoughty@alliancenews.com; @rharrisdoughty
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