Shares in Senior PLC (LSE:SNR) crashed 16% after the engineer warned on profits due to challenges in the aerospace market from troubles at Boeing, resulting in slower growth in the third quarter.
The FTSE 250-listed aerospace, defence and power systems engineer said it expects a lower performance (meaning profit) from its aerospace division in the second half than the first.
For the Flexonics business, which supplies the land vehicle, power and energy markets, full-year expectations were said to be "broadly" (meaning not quite) unchanged, with the second half also lower.
Group order intake overall was "strong", Senior said, though revenue growth of 5% for the nine months to end-September on a constant currency basis was down from the 7% growth in the first half of the year.
Aerospace revenue growth of 13% was down from 14% in the first half, while Flexonics revenue is down 9%, worsening from the 6% fall in the first half.
Commercial aerospace manufacturing is facing "temporary but significant headwinds", Senior said, with Boeing's restricted production of the 737 MAX by US regulators following the Alaskan Airlines incident early in the year.
Directors said they were pleased to hear confirmation from Boeing at their last earnings call that they were expecting to achieve a monthly production rate of 38 by the end of this year.
"However, with the employee strike at its commercial aircraft operations in the Puget Sound area now in its fourth week, there is an inevitable impact on our operating businesses most exposed to this customer, both directly and through its Tier 1 suppliers," Senior said, also noting Airbus's supply chain challenges and
Cost and cash management actions by the board are underway to help mitigate the impact, it said.