LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Cobham (L:COB) missed a profit target that had already been repeatedly lowered and took a charge on a troubled contract with Boeing (NYSE:BA), capping "an incredibly turbulent and disappointing year" for the defence and aerospace group.
In a statement that sent its shares down 22 percent, the company said 2017 could be even worse, as it struggled to fix operational problems in difficult markets. Its shares had already more than halved in the last 12 months.
Cobham on Thursday cut its readout for 2016 trading profit by another 20 million pounds, to 225 million pounds, slipping yet again just a month after its last downgrade.
The group, which scrapped its final dividend last month, said "undoubted" uncertainties in the market meant its ability to forecast its performance was not as strong as it should be, and it was difficult to predict the year ahead.
In addition, it said it had to fix many operational issues to get the business back on track, which would require more spending.
"The board considers that delivery of a similar performance to that of 2016 in 2017 may be challenging," it said.
Chief Executive David Lockwood, who took over in December, said 2016 was an "incredibly turbulent and disappointing year".
"Execution failure in many businesses led us to miss expectations badly and provides a poor entry point into 2017," he said.
As well as a 150 million pound charge on the Boeing KC-46 tanker programme, Cobham took 574 million pounds of non-cash impairments across its business units.