Ultra Electronics' (ULE) business overhaul, restructuring programme and biggest ever acquisition combined to ensure a steady 2 per cent rise in adjusted operating profit last year to £120m. That it came in a year when both the US and UK governments promised to halt defence budget cuts should have been the icing on the cake.
A 6 per cent fall in the share price on results day suggested otherwise. This muted reaction can most likely be attributed to management's conservative outlook for 2016, guiding for flat organic growth when most of its peers have been talking up prospects clearly wasn't the best recipe for confidence. But perhaps the group's bosses should be applauded for pointing out that the improved US fiscal budget won't probably be coming through to suppliers until 2017.