LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Cobham has become something of a specialist in profit warnings, having issued four since 2015, but the shares are still worth 'holding', The Times´s Tempus said.
During the previous week, the heavily-indebted Dorset-based maker of air-refuelling kit told investors it might have to book charges on a contract for work on Boeing´s KC 46 tanker programme for the US Air Force.

Such a decision could result in Cobham breaching its banking covenants.

That possibility sent shares in the firm, which is still trying to recover from its 2014 purchase of US wireless outfit Aeroflex, reeling.

The Aeroflex transaction is the source of its woes. So much so, that after a £500.0m rescue rights issue in 2016 its net debt was pared to £877.0m, but is now back at £1.03bn.

Management has three options, to renegotiate its covenants, another discounted cash call or a takeover and break-up of the business.

Despite all of the above, Tempus advised its readers to 'hold'.



Unlike most pawnbrokers, H&T has come out of the sector´s downturn in good form, expanding into new lines of business that should see the company - founded in 1897 - continue to power ahead, the Mail on Sunday´s Midas column opined.

Faced with a collapsing price of gold in 2012 that saw many of its rivals close their doors, its boss John Nichols and finance chief, Stephen Fenerty, decided to push into unsecured loans and foreign exchange, including via a new digital offering.

Offering annual percentage rate loans nearer 185%, versus roughly 1,200% at rivals, H&T has been adding new customers fast. The company also claims to offer the best foreign exchange prices on the High Street and has launched a new service, Buyback, which allows clients to pawn mobile phones or laptops or to buy them back with interest after 31 days.

Analysts at FinnCap believe both the firm´s bottom line and dividend payout will rise sharply in 2017.

'Buy', Midas said.

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