Apologies for longwinded post.



This company does not seem to be on any thread on this board, but I think worth a look.



ALTHOUGH INVOLVED IN ARMS THE PRODUCTS ARE FOR DEFENCE PURPOSES such as decoys

I have bought and sold shares in this company a few times since November 05.

Its rate of growth have be tremendous as has the share price. Approximate rate of growth for last year was 90% p.a.

I paid it another visit after reading the Times article and followed it initially with view to buy as shares bets or shares. The spread is a bit wide and unsuitable for SBs about 0.7%, but as a long term hold may be useful. BUT DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK.

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AFX News Feed

CHEMRING 25/4/07

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Chemring Group PLC said first-half trading was in line with its expectations, adding that full-year prospects are good as its order book continues to grow. The military manufacturer said the first month performance of Italian munitions firm Simmel Difesa SpA, which it acquired on March 30, has been encouraging. Chemring added Simmel's acquisition for 49 mln stg is expected to be accretive to its earnings in the first full financial year post-completion. First-half results are expected to be announced on June 26, Chemring said. TFN.newsdesk@thomson.com ukn/ic COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.

Friday, 30/03/07, 16:01


LONDON (AFX) - Military manufacturer Chemring has acquired the entire issued shares of Italian munitions specialist Simmel Difesa SpA for 77 mln eur, as part of its ongoing strategy of expanding its presence in the munition and explosive ordnance disposal markets.
The acquisition was funded by the issue of 373,551 new Chemring shares, and a cash payment of 67 mln eur funded by new bank facilities. newsdesk@afxnews.com bsd/nes COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited

22/03/07, 14:58
LONDON (AFX) - Military manufacturer Chemring has acquired the entire issued shares of Italian munitions specialist Simmel Difesa SpA for 77 mln eur, as part of its ongoing strategy of expanding its presence in the munition and explosive ordnance disposal markets.
The acquisition was funded by the issue of 373,551 new Chemring shares, and a cash payment of 67 mln eur funded by new bank facilities. newsdesk@afxnews.com bsd/nes COPYRIGHT Copyright AFX News Limited 2007. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News. AFX News and AFX Financial News Logo are registered trademarks of AFX News Limited



From The Times
February 16, 2007
US defence giants hunt British takeover targets
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are eyeing British defence companies worth more than 5 billion
David Robertson, Business Correspondent
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are eyeing British defence companies worth more than 5 billion in an attempt to win orders from the Ministry of Defence, The Times has learnt.
The American defence giants are understood already to have independently approached, and been rebuffed by, Ultra Electronics, the 800 million battlefield-IT specialist.
They are also thought to be weighing potential bids for Cobham, Meggitt and Chemring.
The interest being shown by the Americans has put British defence companies on a collision course with the Government over the industrys future.
BACKGROUND
Airbus weighs up factory spin-offs in restructuring
Cargo carrier struggles to stay airborne
Industrialists, including Sir John Rose, chief executive of Rolls-Royce, and Allan Cook, chief executive of Cobham, are concerned that UK plc is being sold off to foreigners.
The crisis of ownership is being particularly felt in the defence sector after the introduction last year of the Governments Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS), which sets out the future for the military-in-dustrial complex in Britain.
Lord Drayson, the Defence Procurement Minister, believes that who owns a defence contractor is less important than where it is based. The DIS states that, as long as the scientists, engineers and technicians that build and maintain Britains military infrastructure remain in the country, it matters less where their employer is from.
American companies wanting to win Ministry of Defence (MoD) orders are therefore having do so through a UK subsidiary.
Both Boeing and Lockheed Martin have set up UK operations and are expanding these organically but they are also looking for acquisitions.
Lockheed Martin, which had operating profits of $4 billion (2 billion) last year, said: We are a growing company and an ambitious company and we will look to move in the direction of acquisitions if it is appropriate to do so.
Boeing, which had profits of $3 billion last year, said: We are mindful of the DIS and the need to keep intellectual property in the UK but we need the capability to do so. We are looking at the option of acquisitions. Last week Sir John Rose gave warning that UK plc was under threat from foreign companies using the country as an aircraft carrier and raiding profits without investing in the future.
Allan Cook, chief executive of Cobham, told The Timesyesterday: This is about national defence and it does matter where the shareholders are.
We have to maintain core skills in aerospace and defence.
The American invasion has already begun with GEs acquisition of Smiths Industries aerospace division last month. Analysts have been speculating for some time that Cobham, Meggitt, Ultra and Chemring could be the next targets.
None of these companies was willing to comment.

Credit Suisse reiterated its 'neutral' rating and 330p target price for defence contractor Chemring following The Carlyle Group's announcement last night that it will not be making an offer for the company. The broker said: "We see slim chance of other bids in the short term."

While the shares trade at just 7.8 times forward estimated earrings, Credit Suisse said it is staying cautious, saying that the stock is "clearly volatile given earnings uncertainty".

Looking up?

NIITEK AWARDED $32 MILLION ADDITIONAL HMDS IDIQ DELIVERY ORDERS

Chemring Group PLC ("Chemring") is pleased to announce that its US subsidiary, Non-Intrusive Inspection Technology, Inc. ("NIITEK"), has been awarded two additional delivery orders totaling $32 million to provide spares for both the US Army and US Marine Corps. These delivery orders are issued as part of the multi-year Husky Mounted Detection System ("HMDS") Ground Penetrating Radar ("GPR") Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity ("IDIQ") contract that was awarded on 30 April 2012. This contract not only provides the US Army with the ability to procure spares and replacement systems to replenish theatre sustainment stock, but also provides the ability to serve future system requirements for the US Marine Corps and potential Foreign Military Sales. The potential value of the IDIQ contract is $579 million, with performance into 2013.

Mark Papworth, Chief Executive of Chemring, commented:

"We are delighted that these additional delivery orders enable us to continue our vital support to the US Army and US Marine Corps with NIITEK's HMDS products. Since the inception of the HMDS over four years ago, our commitment remains to provide the best explosives and mine detection capability to US and coalition forces currently in combat, as well as looking ahead to support them as they stand ready to conduct operations around the world."

StockMarketWire.com
* Chemring Group has appointed Steve Bowers as group finance director with effect from 7 January.

He will take over from Nigel Young, who was appointed interim chief financial officer on 31 July.

Bowers was formerly FD of Umeco, the provider of advanced composite materials primarily to the aerospace and defence industries, until its acquisition by Cytec UK Holdings Limited in July.

He joined Umeco in 1998, having qualified as a Chartered Accountant with KPMG, and for 13 years held a number of financial roles, alongside the role of company secretary.

* Chemring Group has appointed Jim Devine as group director of human resources, with effect from 7 January.

He will be a member of the executive committee and will report directly to chief executive Mark Papworth.

Devine began his HR career with British Aerospace plc in 1992, and then spent 10 years at automotive group Ford of Europe in a range of diverse and increasingly senior HR roles.

In 2005 he joined Centrica, the FTSE100 energy group and since 2009 has served as HR Director, Corporate Centre and HR Shared Services.

Investec has reiterated its 'buy' rating and 280p target price for defence contractor Chemring following Thursday's appointment of a new Finance Director in Steve Bowers.

UBS lifts Chemring Group to buy from neutral, target 360p from 300p

Final Results

CHAIRMAN'S STATEMENT

2012 was extremely disappointing for Chemring, our shareholders, our customers and our employees. During the course of the year, against an already challenging market background, a number of additional issues disrupted the operational performance of the business, including problems with the supply chain, contract delays and changes in senior management.

Although the general decline in defence spending in a number of our markets had a significant impact on trading during the year, a large proportion of the problems that affected the Group's performance stemmed from operational issues within the business, a failure to anticipate the impact of changing market dynamics, and poor management of expectations. Overall, this resulted in a significant decline in the market value of the Company.

However, with the appointment of Mark Papworth as Chief Executive in November 2012, followed by the appointment of Steve Bowers as Finance Director in January 2013, we are now rebuilding the senior management team required to lead our recovery. This recovery will focus on operational performance efficiency, margin improvement, and business reorganisation to enable the Group to deal with the ongoing challenges in its end markets. Turning to the balance sheet, there will need to be a tighter focus on the generation and management of our cash flows in order to reduce our levels of debt. The objective is to ensure the business is well-positioned to operate effectively in an environment of constrained defence spending, and to ensure the Group can return to profitable growth.


Trading

Chemring's trading result during 2012 was unsatisfactory. Defence spending pressures on both sides of the Atlantic, but particularly in the USA, affected a number of defence companies during 2012 and Chemring was no different. We failed to anticipate and react to those changing market dynamics quickly enough and to understand the impact on our businesses. Our trading performance suffered as a result. In addition, the overall performance also reflected specific issues at several of our subsidiary companies.

We reported a number of issues during the year. At our Florida subsidiary, we encountered problems with the installation of a new resource planning system which, together with delays on a major contract, considerably eroded its profit. At the year end, the Group's results were significantly below expectations, as we experienced a delay in the receipt of a major order from the Middle East, continued to suffer technical problems with a specific countermeasure product, and were unable to deliver as much of a vehicle based mortar system product as we had anticipated due to export licence difficulties.

Overall, revenue for the year was £740.3 million, an increase of 2%, generating an underlying operating profit* of £88.3 million, down 35%. Underlying profit before tax* fell by 42% to £70.1 million, producing underlying earnings per share* of 28.5p, a fall of 43% against the previous year.

The order intake for the Group was £660.2 million, which is 17% lower than last year. Although we saw strong order growth in our Counter-IED and Pyrotechnics businesses, this was offset by a downturn in order intake within Countermeasures and Munitions. The Munitions segment was affected by export licence delays, and the timing of orders, with several large multi-year contracts having been received in the prior year. The lower order intake in the Countermeasures segment principally reflects lower customer demand, driven by government fiscal and budgetary controls. As a result, the Group's closing order book reached £760.9 million, down 13% on 2011.

Makes for grim reading yet the sp is up this morning! Not complaining and I suppose you could argue the bad news/expectation is already in the sp, but I'm still surprised the sp hasn't been hammered!

i'm afraid that though chemring is a very good company, it is in very much the wrong sector ..... indeed looking at fred's chart at the top of the page, this looks ready short with clear resistance at 300 which is also 200 dma

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order book on L2 looks strong, but that may well be earlier short positions being closed - or something (i.e. no idea why!)

Maybe everyone is buying in the hope of a bid from a predator, a rumour which has been doing the rounds from time to time?

never buy on that sort of supposition .... but then as i have just shorted, i would say that wouldn't i!

If the order book is strong, what is the logic behind a short? Possibly current shorters being stopped out, by why would they be? Final results (released at 07.00 hrs) are very poor in comparison to last year's figures, so sp should have been marked down at the open, imo. Surely the risk to shorters now is that all the bad news is already in the sp or that buyers are hoping for a bid?

StockMarketWire.com
Chemring's US subsidiary, Chemring Detection Systems, has been awarded a $28.5m delivery order against a multi-year IDIQ contract to supply chemical detection systems to the US Army.

The Edgewood Contracting Division of the US Army Contracting Command-APG has ordered more than 100 Joint Services Lightweight Standoff Chemical Agent Detectors.

The JSLSCAD remotely detects and identifies multiple chemical agent vapour clouds at ranges up to 5km.

These systems will be installed in the Stryker Nuclear Biological Chemical Reconnaissance Vehicle.

INTERIM MANAGEMENT STATEMENT

Chemring Group PLC ("Chemring" or "the Group") today issues its Interim Management Statement covering the period from 1 November 2012 to date, as required by Rule 4.3 of the Disclosure and Transparency Rules of the UK Listing Authority.

Current trading
Revenue from continuing operations during the first three month period was £136.1 million, compared with £132.4 million in the prior year. Improved trading performances in Pyrotechnics and Counter-IED were offset by weaker performances in Countermeasures and Munitions. Despite the general decline in current NATO defence spending, the Group's order book is currently £756.7 million, marginally lower than the £760.9 million order book at 31 October 2012. A weak order intake in Munitions was compensated by a stronger order intake in Counter-IED, where significant orders were awarded in the period, including a contract for Joint Services Lightweight Standoff Chemical Agent Detectors (US$28.5 million) with the US Army and a contract for the provision of Husky Mounted Detection System ('HMDS') Ground Penetrating Radar (US$32 million) with the US Army. 51.6% of the order book at the end of January 2013 was for delivery in the current financial year.

Counter-IED
Revenue from our Counter-IED business in the quarter was 33% higher than for the same period last year, when there was a pause in demand for HMDS from the US Department of Defense. The solid order intake in the period included the award to NIITEK of a contract for HMDS systems, together with spares and training, for the Spanish Army.

Countermeasures
Revenue at our Countermeasures business was 30% below the same period last year. This was primarily as a result of the lower opening order book and production delays at our US Countermeasures businesses, which are expected to be recovered during the course of the year.

Pyrotechnics and Munitions
Revenue in our Pyrotechnics business increased by 110% compared with the same period last year, whilst revenue at our Munitions business was 22% lower than the same period last year, reflecting the weighting of our production capacity towards smoke and illumination rounds for Middle East customers, rather than artillery ammunition. Order intake at our Munitions business continues to be impacted by delays in the placing of major contracts and by the granting of export licences.

Current financial position
The Group's net debt at the end of January 2013 was £285.9 million (31 October 2012: £244.8 million, 31 January 2012: £316.9 million). The Group continues to closely manage cash and working capital balances.

Outlook
As outlined at the Group's preliminary results release on 24 January 2013, although budget uncertainties continue to impact wider market confidence across the Group's US, UK and European defence markets, Chemring remains focused on driving improvements in its operational performance and restructuring its businesses in order to provide the Group with greater resilience.

An update on progress made against the key priorities for 2013, as outlined at the Group's preliminary results release, will be given alongside Chemring's interim results in June 2013.

NIITEK AWARDED $33 MILLION ADDITIONAL HMDS IDIQ DELIVERY ORDERS

Chemring Group PLC ("Chemring") is pleased to announce that its US subsidiary, Non-Intrusive Inspection Technology, Inc. ("NIITEK"), has been awarded a further delivery order worth $24 million to provide spares for the Husky Mounted Detection System ("HMDS") for the US Army. This supplements the $9 million order received in February 2013. These two latest delivery orders are part of the $579 million multi-year HMDS Ground Penetrating Radar Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) contract that was awarded on 30 April 2012. All items will be delivered on a firm fixed price basis by April 2014.

Mark Papworth, Chief Executive of Chemring, commented:

"NIITEK's HMDS products perform an essential role in protecting troops against the threat of improvised explosive devices. We are delighted that these additional delivery orders enable us to continue our proven support to the US Army, and that NIITEK will continue to deliver critical spares to ensure their fleet is mission ready."

StockMarketWire.com
Chemring Group's US subsidiary, Non-Intrusive Inspection Technology, Inc, has been awarded a further delivery order worth $76m to provide spares for the Husky Mounted Detection System for the US Army.

This delivery order is issued under the $579m multi-year HMDS Ground Penetrating Radar Indefinite-Delivery/Indefinite-Quantity contract that was awarded on 30 April 2012. The period of performance for this contract is through to May 2014.

The NIITEK HMDS is a high-performance ground penetrating radar system which functions on Husky vehicles to provide real-time identification of anti-vehicular landmines and other explosive hazards on main supply routes and open areas such as minefields

It is always sad to look back at shares which have gone ex-growth when the market was paying a premium for them during the growth phrase.

IDH is another ex-growth share which is floundering now.

I guess if the balance sheets and order books are still good then the 'ex-growth' companies could still be worth looking at.

First and foremost though you should work out if the reason that the shares went ex-growth is a permanent or temporary one and the likely effect this will have on equity growth.

StockMarketWire.com
Defence contractor Chemring said the first six months of the year saw revenue from continuing operations down 10.8% to £297.4m (2012: £333.3m).

Underlying profit before tax reduce by 34.7% to £25.6 million (2012: £39.2 million), and underlying earnings per share were down 35.6% to 10.3p (2012: 16.0p).

In particular, these results reflect lower revenues and profits from our Countermeasures and Pyrotechnics & Munitions operations, which were affected by reduced volumes, continuing production delays due to issues arising last year, and slow order intake.

The order book reduced by 7.9% over the period to £701.1 million (October 2012: £760.9 million). Of this order book, £287.6 million is scheduled for delivery during the current financial year.

Defence spending in NATO markets remains constrained, and our analysis indicates that the global market will continue to contract for the next two years, albeit at a slower rate than being seen at present. Declines in US and NATO defence spending, driven primarily by reduced budgets and the withdrawal from Afghanistan, will significantly outweigh the growth that is expected in other regions of the world.

Mark Papworth, Group CEO, commented: 'The Group has made good progress in the first half. The quality of our operations is improving, and while there is still much to do, we are confident that the Group's performance is heading in the right direction. However, visibility generally, and the limited level of detail on the extent and nature of cuts to US defence spending in particular, makes forecasting increasingly difficult. For the current financial year, the Board's outlook is towards the lower end of expectations.

'Looking ahead, significant progress has been made in our Performance Recovery Programme announced in January 2013. These actions are expected to underpin 2014 profitability, drive improvements in operational performance, and provide greater resilience in current challenging markets.'

"For the current financial year, the Board's outlook is towards the lower end of expectations. "

Says it all for me. However Chemring is a quality company, albeit in a sector that will see declining expenditure over the next couple of years. I'd certainly be looking to pick some up if it continues to fall close to 200p/sh.