Cobham CFO announces departure

Aerospace and defence firm Cobham has announced the departure of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Warren Tucker.

Tucker has been Cobham's CFO since May 2003 will stand down at the 2013 annual general meeting, having served 10 years on the board.

The news of his leaving was delayed until after the announcement earlier this week of the appointment of a new Chief Executive, Robert Murphy.

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Thursday's trading update says expectations for 2012 remain unchanged. On top of "modestly positive" organic revenue growth in the first three months of 2011, a cost cutting drive appears to be on track to deliver £8m in efficiency savings by the end of the year.

Order intake in the quarter is described as "encouraging" and at the end of March the order book stood at £2.5bn.

Net debt decreased to £215m by the end of the quarter (December 31, 2011: £232m) and, due to UK legislation changes Cobham expects its underlying tax rate will be lower than previously expected for a few years starting in 2012.

Since the start of the year Cobham shares have risen 27%, although they were down 2.4% by 09:24.

BS