At the Annual General Meeting on 26 February 2025 the Chemring Group plc shareholders approved a final dividend in respect of the year ended 31 October 2024 of 5.2p per ordinary share. This was paid on 11 April 2025 to shareholders on the register on 21 March 2025.
The Board continues to recognise that dividends are an important component of total shareholder returns. The Board's objective is for a growing and sustainable dividend and continues to target a dividend cover of c.2.5 times underlying EPS, subject inter alia to maintaining a strong financial position. Therefore, the Board has declared an interim dividend in respect of the 2025 financial year of 2.7p (H1 2024: 2.6p) per ordinary share which will be paid on 5 September 2025 to shareholders on the register on 15 August 2025.
Other financial highlights include:
Record H1 order intake of £488m and order book of £1,304m, the highest in Chemring's history, providing excellent medium-term revenue coverage
H1 2025 was in line with the Board's expectations:
- Revenue growth of 5%, driven by strong performance within Countermeasures & Energetics, up 20.4%
- Underlying operating profit margin improving to 11.6% (H1 2024: 11.2%)
Good progress made on organic growth projects to date, with £46.1m of capex spent in total during the period
Net debt was £93.3m (H1 2024: £75.3m), with the increase as expected given the investment in growth capex. Net debt to underlying EBITDA of 0.95 times (H1 2024: 0.85 times)
£3.3m deployed into the £40m share buyback programme announced on 26 February 2025
The Board's expectations for 2025 are unchanged, with a similar H2 weighting of operating profit to last year (as previously guided). Approximately 85% (H1 2024: 96%) of expected 2025 revenue was delivered or in the order book at 30 April 2025
The Group's longer-term growth prospects are strong, underpinned by robust customer demand for their market-leading products and services, high barriers to entry across their market segments, and a high quality pipeline of organic and inorganic growth opportunities
