Cobham today became the latest UK defence and aerospace company to cut back its forecasts because of weaker US government spending.
Its shares fell 17.25p, or 6%, to 267.15p. Cobham said US defence and security accounts for about a third of its revenues, and the outlook for spending in this area remained highly uncertain “with the budgetary environment showing signs of further deterioration”.
That means that while 2013 trading remains in line with the lower expectations issued in August of a low single-digit fall in revenues, it now expects the same kind of decline in 2014.
Cobham said it would look at further cost-cutting to “substantially mitigate the impact of organic revenue declines” on its margins. It still expects a return to growth in 2015.
