Ultra Electronics Holdings PLC (LON:ULE) has started the year with a record order book and said defence spending remained robust in its core 'five-eyes' markets.
The defence and security firm ended 2020 with an order book of £1.1bn, versus £1.0bn the previous year, and noted that the order intake continues to be strong in the first quarter of this year.
Underlying pretax profit rose 8.7% to £114.5mln in the year to end December 2020, helped by the disposal of two small non-core businesses.
"We made good strategic progress and achieved our third consecutive year of strong organic growth," said chief executive Simon Pryce "We made good progress on our ONE Ultra transformation and, as a result, we delivered or exceeded most of our stakeholder objectives. These would have been excellent outcomes in any year, but against a background of pandemic-driven disruption and turmoil, it was an exceptional performance."
Ultra said it would continue to increase its technology investment.
"Our ONE Ultra transformation programme is having a positive impact on both growth opportunities and operational efficiency, and with strong 2020 delivery, we are confident enough to accelerate several of our transformation actions in 2021," said Pryce. "This should see us begin to realise year-on-year benefits in 2022, a year ahead of plan."
Revenue for the company grew 4.2% to £859.8mln.
"Based on our strong order book, and whilst we continue to monitor and adapt to the changing situation in all our markets, we are planning for continued revenue growth in 2021, although we do not expect to see any improvement in commercial aerospace revenue until at least 2023," the company said.