BAE Systems Pretax Profit Rose in 1st Half, Sees Debt Flat

By Carlo Martuscelli

BAE Systems PLC (BA.LN) said Wednesday that half-year pretax profit rose 36% and said it expected net debt to remain largely unchanged in the full-year compared with 2018.

BAE posted a profit before tax of 776 million pounds ($944 million) in the half year, compared with GBP571 million the prior-year period

Underlying earnings per share--the company's preferred metric, which strips out exceptional and other one-off items--rose to 21.9 a share from 19.8 pence in the first half of 2018.

The company's order intake in the period was GBP8.42 billion while its backlog totaled GBP47.4 billion.

BAE said it still expected underlying earnings per share for 2019 to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage--assuming a $1.30 to GBP1 exchange rate. It added that it now sees net debt in 2019 broadly unchanged from the year prior, a result it attributed to a timing mix for its Qatar Typhoon fighter jet program, and the M109A7 program.

The board of the defense company declared an interim dividend of 9.4 pence per share, compared with 9.0 pence the prior year.

Write to Carlo Martuscelli at carlo.martuscelli@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 31, 2019 02:48 ET (06:48 GMT)

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