Ultra Electronics boosts H1 profit

British defence company Ultra Electronics (ULE.L) posted strong rises in its first-half profit, order book and dividend on Monday and said it was confident of its future prospects. The company, which makes sonars to help submarines to detect each other, said a 32 percent rise in pretax profit could not be matched over the full year, but its investment programme had helped boost the order book 19 percent to 767 million pounds ($1.28 billion) against the same point in 2008. Ultra shares, a rare gainer in the year to date, were up 1.9 percent at 1,162 pence a share by 0757 GMT, valuing the business at around 800 million pounds. "We won't be as strong (in terms of profit growth) for the whole year," Chief Executive Douglas Master told reporters, adding that acquisitions made late in 2008 had made half-year comparisons misleading. The company raised its dividend 20 percent to 9.6 pence. "The best indicator for the future is the dividend," Master said.

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