BCKIF - Babcock flags £1.7B charge after review but unveils turnaround plan

Babcock International ([[BCKIF]] +43.3%) skyrockets after the U.K.'s second-largest defense contractor revealed a £1.7B ($2.3B) writedown after re-evaluating its contracts and said it would seek to raise £400M from asset sales.The writedown exceeds Babcock's market value and was much higher than most analysts expected, but the majority was not in cash, and CEO David Lockwood says he does not need a rights issue to rebuild the company's balance sheet.Babcock said it would look to raise £400M from asset sales and simplify its business, leading to the loss of 1,000 jobs, as part of a wider restructuring to turn around the company's performance.The company also released preliminary, unaudited results for the full year ending March 2021, showing underlying revenue of £4.69B, slightly lower than the £4.87B for the prior year, and underlying operating profit fell to £307M from £524M before the writedown.

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Babcock flags £1.7B charge after review but unveils turnaround plan