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A FTSE-100 company with a narrow bid-offer spread. Manufactures and supplies components and vehicle
structures to automotive, aerospace, mining and agricultural industries. Approximately 39,000 people work
in GKN companies and joint ventures in more than 30 countries

GKN corporate website - GKN investors website - Company history


(previous thread title no longer relevant, hence new thread)

StockMarketWire.com
GKN reports a solid performance for six months to the end of June and announced it has agreed to acquire Fokker Technologies Group for €706m.

GKN also plans a non pre-emptive cash placing of new ordinary shares to raise approximately £200m, gross.

The group said GKN Driveline delivered 4% organic sales growth and an 8.3% trading margin while GKN Powder Metallurgy achieved an 11.8% margin.

GKN Aerospace delivered in line with expectations and won some important new contracts for the future.

Chief executive Nigel Stein said: "We have continued to perform well against our key markets and report good results in spite of some end market weakness, particularly in GKN Land Systems. We expect these trends to continue in the second half and for 2015 to be another year of growth.

"The acquisition of Fokker Technologies, also announced today, supports our strategy, brings excellent technology, an expanded geographic footprint and additional content on high growth aerospace programmes."

Highlights:
· Sales increased 1% organically

· Trading margin improved to 9.0%

· Profit before tax (management basis) up 4% at £346m

· Reported profit before tax was £212 million (2014: £224 million)

· Earnings per share up 1%, impacted by an increased tax rate of 24% (2014: 22%)

· Interim dividend increased 4% to 2.9 pence per share

· Free cash flow of £21 million (2014: £19 million)

· Net debt of £708 million (31 December 2014: £624 million), reflecting normal seasonality

Jeffries note: BUY TP 415p
"Excluding provision releases in Aerospace and a pension service credit in Corporate, we estimate Group EBIT would have been around 4% below company-sourced consensus. The ability of sentiment to drive GKN’s valuation has recently been manifest. Today’s acquisition of Fokker Technologies for £499m and share placing of £200m may test the mood. We thought GKN might be battening down the hatches, but we have significant expansion.
1H15 results in brief. Group management sales rose from £3,828m to £3,853m (company-sourced consensus £3,860m; JEFe £3,877m) and Group management EBIT rose from £340m to £346m (consensus £337m; JEFe £345m). There were, however, £15m of provision releases in Aerospace. Group EPS rose slightly from 14.4p to 14.5p (JEFe 13.8p), despite the book tax rate rising from 20% to 24%. The interim dividend was increased from 2.8p to 2.9P (JEFe 2.9p). 1H15 free cash was £21m compared to £19m in 1H14, although the latter included a £54m repayment of a UK Government refundable advance. Net debt at end 1H15 was £708m versus £813m at end 1H14 and £624m at end FY14. The total deficit on Group post-employment obligation at end 1H15 was £1,533m versus £1,711m at end FY14 and £1,363m at end 1H14.
Good organic growth. 1H15 Group management sales rose by 1%, the performance across each division being: Aerospace 2% (1H14 and FY14 = 3%), Driveline 4% (1H14 = 11%; FY14 = 8%), Powder Metallurgy 1% (1H14 = 6%; FY14 = 5%) and Land Systems -8% (1H14 = -9%; FY14 = -10%). GKN states that 1H15 global light vehicle production rose by 0.9% meaning that Driveline continued to usefully outperform its end market. In Driveline, good organic growth was achieved in Europe, but North American sales were in-line with the market due to the weighting of US new car registrations towards the pick-up truck segment where GKN’s content is lower than on cars and SUVs (this was also the case in the May trading update). Driveline’s 1H15 operating margin of 8.3% showed a useful improvement over 8% in 1H14 and 8.1% for FY14. GKN notes that its 2H15 growth in China is expected to be above the market due to the strong order book and new programme launches. No mention is made of pricing pressure. In Powder Metallurgy, reported organic sales growth of 1% was reduced by around 1% by the negative of a direct pass through of lower raw material prices, but that might also have helped the operating margin rise to 11.8% from 11.3% in 1H14 and 11% for FY14. Nonetheless, Powder Metallurgy looks a little dull, in our view.
Fokker Technologies. Today’s acquisition has an EV of €706m (£499m). GKN states the acquisition will be earnings accretive in its first full year and that ROIC should exceed GKN’s cost of capital in 2017. In 2014, Fokker had sales of €758m, EBITDA of €76m and EBIT of €53. GKN has identified potential synergies of around €23m. GKN also notes that Fokker has historical tax losses that GKN expects to utilise. In 2014, around 20% of Fokker’s sales from business jets, a market that has recently generated some cautious commentary at several of GKN’s peers. In many respects, however, Fokker appears to be a good fit in terms of the major programmes it supplies. On the Airbus A350 family, for example, Fokker supplies the outboard wing flap. It also supplies Flaperons for the F-35 JSF. Fokker’s GLARE fuselage panel for the A380 is also an interesting technology that may have future applications, in our view.
Great circles. Today, GKN looks to have continued following the shortest path from A to B; growing away from its legacy liabilities and moving Aerospace further towards a world-leading position. Our snap reaction is that Fokker is a complementary business being acquired at a reasonable price. The snag is that sometimes one must revise one’s course to reflect the prevailing winds. Those winds are currently such that GKN may test the market’s mettle today."

Bought in last week see if we can get the same sort of bounce as last year .

Still looking grim Jimmy......support at.........hmmmmmmm.....240p?

StockMarketWire.com
Investec has downgraded its recommendation on global engineering group GKN (LON:GKN) to hold from buy, stating that is adopting a more cautious view on the outlook for Driveline and Powder Met to reflect a potential slowdown in auto production in China and other emerging markets.

Analysts also reduced their target to 300 pence a share (from 370 pence), implying a forecast total return of 9.7 per cent.

The broker added: "Weak earnings momentum has shaken confidence and investors may require consensus forecasts to stabilise before buying into GKN's longer term potential to drive a re-rating."

I'm happy to hold for the moment HARRY ,doesn't seem as much of a gamble as some stocks out there .

One of the many suppliers to the auto industry hit by the VW news. Seems a bit unreasonable as GKN have nothing to do with the software side as far as I know, but may be an opportunity to buy into GKN when the dust as settled?

6 Oct Canaccord... 445.00 Buy
6 Oct Canaccord... N/A Buy
2 Oct Panmure Gordon 375.00 Buy
30 Sep JP Morgan... 380.00 Overweight

Sector note from Liberum today:
"We further downgrade estimates for our engineering coverage to reflect lower growth signalled by our early cycle indicator. Margin resilience will now be the focus during the looming 3Q 15 reporting season. The sector has recently sold off but it is too soon to turn more positive. Pockets of value exist but short term risk/reward remains to the downside.

· 73% of our recs are Hold or Sell

· Proprietary UK ECI signals 1% growth

· FY16 growth and margin estimates cut accordingly

· Sell ROR, WEIR and increase caution on TTG, IMI, GKN

· Pockets of value include SXS, BOY, MRO and MGAM (all BUYs)

· …but 3Q 15 will be bearish."

HARRY they need to make their mind up !

16 Oct Liberum Capital 300.00 Hold
16 Oct Berenberg 370.00 Buy
15 Oct Panmure Gordon 375.00 Buy

You could interpret 'increased caution' as being a HOLD.
To be honest, I just add broker comments into the mix for a balanced view. You and I get it right as much as they do, imo.

StockMarketWire.com
GKN, the global engineering business that serves the aerospace, automotive and land systems markets, says management sales for the nine months ended 30 September rose to £5,683 million - up from £5,617 million last time.

GKN says this represented a 2% organic increase, with beneficial currency translation of £29 million being more than offset by the net negative impact of disposals/acquisitions of £54 million.

Group trading margin was slightly below last year principally due to GKN Land Systems including the previously announced restructuring costs.

Looking ahead, the group says that in line with the global economic outlook, it sees a slight softening to the rate of growth in its major markets in the fourth quarter. The automotive market is forecast to see a 1% decline in the final quarter.

Military aerospace and agricultural equipment markets look set to continue their declines whereas commercial aerospace markets remain robust.

Notwithstanding the backdrop of the tougher economic environment, before any impact from the Fokker acquisition, the group continues to expect 2015 overall to be a year of further growth.

Chief executive Nigel Stein said: "We have maintained our progress reporting 2% organic growth, in spite of the tougher economic environment. We continue to expect 2015 to be a year of further growth."

22 Oct Canaccord... 445.00 Buy
19 Oct Barclays... 450.00 Overweight

StockMarketWire.com
GKN, the global engineering group, has confirmed that the acquisition of Fokker Technologies Group, announced in July, has been completed.

Fokker is a specialist tier one aerospace supplier in aerostructures, electrical wiring systems, landing gear and associated services, across commercial, military and business jet end markets.

It will reinforce GKN Aerospaces global leadership positions, increase shipset value on key growth programmes and further extend its global footprint with a presence in China, Turkey, India and Mexico.

JP Morgan Cazenove today reaffirms its overweight investment rating on GKN PLC (LON:GKN) and cut its price target to 370p (from 380p).

StockMarketWire.com
GKN reports continued progress in 2015 and delivered on its expectations.

Sales for the year ended 31 December increased 2% organically with good growth in Automotive; GKN Aerospace up; GKN Land Systems down in tough markets.

Trading margin were unchanged at 9.2%, excluding Fokker Technologies.

Profit before tax (management basis) rose to £603 million (2014: £601 million) and reported profit before tax increased to £45 million (2014: £221 million), (higher primarily due to the movement on the mark to market valuation of forward foreign exchange contracts).

Management earnings per share slightly lower, as a result of the costs of the Fokker acquisition and an increased tax rate to 24% (2014: 22%).

Total dividend increased 4% to 8.7 pence per share.

Chief executive Nigel Stein said: "GKN continued to make progress in 2015 and delivered on our expectations. We performed well against our key markets, overcoming some demand weakness and demonstrating once again the strength of our businesses, strong market positions and leading technology. Highlights of the year were GKN Aerospace's acquisition of Fokker Technologies, strong market-beating growth by GKN Driveline and good margin advances by GKN Powder Metallurgy. Looking forward, we expect 2016 to be a year of good growth, helped by the contribution from Fokker."

Berenberg today reaffirms its buy investment rating on GKN PLC (LON:GKN) and cut its price target to 332p (from 370p).

StockMarketWire.com
GKN, the global engineering business that serves the aerospace, automotive and land systems markets, says its principal markets have performed in line with its expectations.

Management sales for the three months ended 31 March were GBP2,179 million (2015: GBP1,943 million). This 12% increase comprised 1% organic growth, 8% acquisition growth and 3% beneficial currency translation.

The group says its automotive businesses continue to outperform the market and its aerospace business has traded in line with its expectations, against a strong comparative period. Land Systems markets remain tough.

Group trading margin is lower than last year primarily due to a reduction in GKN Aerospace as a result of lower military sales, the mix of new and mature programmes and the absence of last years one-off benefits. The inclusion of Fokker Technologies increased profit but reduced trading margin.

StockMarketWire.com
GKN experienced another period of growth in line with expectations.

HIGHLIGHTS
- Sales up 17% and management eps increased 7%

- Continued market outperformance with organic sales up 2%

- Fokker integration on track and performing well

- Reducing fixed costs; annualised savings of £30 million from 2017 through a GKN wide fixed cost optimisation programme; charge of £35 million in the second half of 2016

- Capital allocation to be progressively directed towards productivity improvement in core aerospace and automotive divisions

- Continued investment in technology

- strong technology pipeline; innovation recognised by customer and industry awards

- Momentum of new business wins continues to support growth ahead of markets

StockMarketWire.com
GKN says trading in the nine months to the end of September was in line with forecasts with management sales up 21%, including organic sales growth of 2%.

GKN, the global engineering business that serves the aerospace and automotive markets, says its principal markets performed in line with the expectations set out in its July results announcement.

Management sales for the nine months ended 30 September 2016 were £6,895 million (2015: £5,683 million). This 21% increase comprised £151 million (2%) organic growth, acquisitions of £587 million and beneficial currency translation of £474 million.

Sales in the Automotive businesses continue to perform well against the market and the Aerospace division grew in line with expectations. Land Systems' markets remain tough.

As expected, the Group trading margin was lower than the equivalent period last year. This was due to the commencement of the Group-wide £35 million restructuring programme, launch related costs in GKN Driveline, the absence of last years one-off benefits in GKN Aerospace and the inclusion of Fokker Technologies.

Operating cash flow was similar to the equivalent period last year. Chief executive Nigel Stein said: "GKN has continued to make progress. Organic growth was 2%, whilst we also benefited significantly from the successful acquisition and integration of GKN Aerospace Fokker as well as from favourable currency translation due to the weakness of sterling. As expected, our organic profit performance was down primarily due to one-off items, including the costs of the restructuring, which will position us better for the years ahead.

"In line with the global economic outlook, we see growth rates easing in our major markets. The automotive market is now forecast to see a 1% increase in light vehicle production in the final quarter. New commercial aerospace programmes continue to ramp-up, although at a slower rate than expected. Our military aerospace programmes and agricultural equipment markets look set to continue their decline. Despite the slightly tougher macro-economic environment, the Group continues to expect 2016 to be another year of growth."