GKN LONDON (Reuters) - British engineering group GKN (>> GKN plc) reported a 12 percent rise in adjusted pretax profit on Tuesday, just beating market expectations, and said it would grow ahead of both its main aerospace and autos markets in 2017.
The company, which supplies components for Airbus and Boeing aircraft and car makers including Volkswagen, reported adjusted pretax profit of 678 million pounds ($842 million) on sales up 22 percent to 9.4 billion pounds, comfortably ahead of forecasts.
It said it expected organic sales in its aerospace division to rise "slightly above" the 2 percent market growth forecast by independent analysts.
In automotive, it forecast it would beat independent predictions of around 2 percent growth in global light vehicle production, with increases in China and Europe, but North America down.
Analysts were expecting GKN to report adjusted pretax profit of 668 million pounds on revenue of 9.1 billion pounds, according to a company-supplied consensus.
Separately on Tuesday, aerospace engineer Meggitt (>> Meggitt plc) reported a 13 percent rise in adjusted pretax profit to 352.1 million pounds, and said a strong finish to the year gave it good momentum going into 2017.
"We are past the peak of engineering investment on the many new aircraft programmes that have recently entered, or are entering, into service," Chief Executive Stephen Young said.
"Our increased content on these new programmes will drive higher revenue in the coming years."
($1 = 0.8050 pounds)
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Kate Holton)
