Shares in the company, which supplies components for Airbus and Boeing planes and carmakers including Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler, rose 2 percent to 295.8 pence in early trade, overtaking for the first time the level they were trading at prior to Britain's EU referendum result, announced on June 24.

For 2016, analysts on average expect GKN's underlying or management basis pretax profit to rise 8 percent to 652 million pounds, building on a 12 percent first-half increase to 344 million pounds.

GKN said its performance this year would be helped by the acquisition of aeroparts supplier Fokker it made last year, and from currency translation.

The firm sells most of its products in dollars and euros, meaning it has benefitted from the weakening of sterling, which since the Brexit vote is 12 percent lower against the dollar.

Looking further ahead, GKN said it would aim to cut costs by 30 million pounds from 2017, taking a 35 million charge in the second half of this year to reduce headcount by about 300 people out of its 57,000 workforce.

The cost saving programme will bring in more automated inspection, robotic assembly and better use of data, said Chief Executive Nigel Stein.

"We're doing it now because we want to keep our competitiveness and step up the pace," Stein told reporters, adding the plan had nothing to do with the Brexit vote.

GKN, which has about 10 percent of its workforce in Britain and generates about 12 percent of its sales there, said it expected little impact over the medium term from the uncertainty caused by the vote.

"We're a very global business ... it's a big world out there, we don't see it having any direct impact on GKN," Stein said.

GKN also said it would lift its interim dividend per share by 2 percent, which some analysts noted was below the 4 percent level of the payout rise at the time of the full-year results and last year's half-year outcome.

"Our sense is that GKN is in good shape, although the 2 percent dividend increase and plan to reduce 2017 fixed costs by 30 million pounds suggest it is not plain sailing," said Jefferies analyst Sandy Morris.

($1 = 0.7629 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by James Davey and Mark Potter)

By Sarah Young