Babcock confident of strong year

Engineering support services group Babcock said the new financial year had started well and it was confident of meeting expectations.

The company said the economic environment was playing into its hands as customers sought to outsource more of their technical, engineering and training support needs.

Bidding activity across the group had remained strong, the firm said, and as a result its bid pipeline had increased to £13bn from £9.5bn in May.

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This had been driven mainly by new bidding activities within its support services division, Babcock said.

The firm added that its order book was stable at around £13bn.

"This provides us with excellent visibility of future revenues, with around 80% of the group's anticipated revenue for the 2012/13 financial year currently contracted," the company said.

"This reinforces the board's confidence of meeting its expectations for this financial year and delivering strong progress on last year," it added.