VEGA

VEGA, the technology consultant backed by Growth Company Investor at 186.5p, continues to delight with bullish news flow – chief executive Phil Cartmell has just announced new business with the European Space Agency worth €2m (£1.38m).

The company has been awarded a new two year work package, with a potential two year extension, to provide support and maintenance for a range of software applications used by the European Space Agency for spacecraft missions flown from its operations centre in Germany. The work, which falls within a framework contract announced by the group last month, is worth at least €2m over four years, and VEGA successfully beat off three other consortia to secure the work.

VEGA recently cheered investors with strong half-time figures to October that revealed bumper sales growth in each region and market sector. Now firmly focused on the aerospace, defence and government markets, VEGA reported a 20% pre-tax profit leap to £2m on sales up 25% to £30.6m. Cartmell also flagged up healthy organic growth of 20%, and said VEGA was off to a flyer in the second half-year.

City forecasts for the year – before this most recent European Space Agency news – suggested profits of £4.6m and earnings of 15.2p, which would place the shares on an undemanding prospective p/e ratio of 13.3. Investors can expect further upbeat news from this stellar performer. We remain strong buyers at the current price.