LONDON: British defence company BAE Systems is to cut jobs in the UK and Australia and forecast no earnings growth in 2015 after it cut the rate of Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft production.
BAE said it planned to cut 371 roles in its military air and information business as a result of the reduction in production the Typhoon, the multirole fighter aircraft.
In Australia, the company said that with no near-term prospect of work beyond existing ship orders there would be further job cuts and a consolidation of its operating divisions from three to two to reduce management costs.
BAE’s stock was the bigger riser in early trading after the update on Thursday morning, up just over 4% to 456p.
The company said that including a benefit of 2p from tax provisions, it expected underlying earnings per share for 2015 of around 38p.
BAE said in February that for 2015 it expected underlying earnings per share to be marginally higher than the 38p per share it made in 2014, a forecast that was partly dependent on new orders in the shape of more Eurofighter Typhoons for Saudi Arabia and work for its shipyards in Australia.
The company said overall it expected good sales growth in 2015 and a robust order backlog at the half-year of £37.3bn underpinned its confidence in its prospects.
