Bulletin: BAE Systems PLC's Order Book Continues To Increase, Strengthening Long-Term Prospects And Ratings Headroom

This report does not constitute a rating action. LONDON (S&P Global Ratings) Aug. 6, 2024--BAE Systems PLC (BBB+/Stable/A-2) continues to benefit from strong tailwinds in the defense sector, as it grew its order backlog to £74 billion as of June 30, 2024, up from £69.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023, and orders in the first half of 2024 totaled more than £15 billion, leading to BAE upgrading its full year guidance. The partly debt-funded acquisition of Ball Aerospace, which was finalized earlier in 2024, reduced ratings headroom built up by BAE Systems in recent years, though we should start to see this improve again, as profitability and cash generation increase. We have revised our expectations slightly for 2024, based

...August 6, 2024 This report does not constitute a rating action. LONDON (S&P Global Ratings) Aug. 6, 2024--BAE Systems PLC (###+/Stable/A-2) continues to benefit from strong tailwinds in the defense sector, as it grew its order backlog to ú74 billion as of June 30, 2024, up from ú69.8 billion as of Dec. 31, 2023, and orders in the first half of 2024 totaled more than ú15 billion, leading to BAE upgrading its full year guidance. The partly debt-funded acquisition of Ball Aerospace, which was finalized earlier in 2024, reduced ratings headroom built up by BAE Systems in recent years, though we should start to see this improve again, as profitability and cash generation increase. We have revised our expectations slightly for 2024, based on the half-year results, and now expect revenues to rise by about 13% to above ú26 billion, with the highest growth coming from Electronic Systems (materially due to the integration of Ball Aerospace) and Maritime, down to BAE's involvement on the Dreadnought...

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