Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Short du Jour: "U.K. Defense Cuts a Death Knell for Smaller Defense Firms"

All a short seller is doing is transmitting information via price signals.
And crushing the Empire.
(I know, I know)
Who needs battlefield losses like Maiwand, Gallipoli or Singapore when you have economists?
I feel all Rommel-like (at least the '39-mid-'42 edition)
From the WSJ Europe's The Source blog:
The U.K.’s strategic defense and security review has done nothing to dispel the gloom from the country’s defense industry. If anything, the near-term looks bleaker, especially for the little guy.
It is tough to say there were any winners in Prime Minister David Cameron’s blueprint for defense capabilities. If there are beneficiaries, they’re companies whose projects seemed in jeopardy but dodged the bullets. They include the U.K. unit of General Dynamics Corp., which has a contract to supply armored fighting vehicles for the British army.

Others endured mixed fortunes. For example, BAE Systems PLC, one of the contractors building two new aircraft carriers, will be relieved that the Queen Elizabeth class vessels will be built, but it may lose out in other areas. The U.K. defense giant and its shipyards could be affected by the decision to reduce the rest of the fleet’s size.

Britain slashed its commitment to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, which is being built by Lockheed Martin Corp. and in which BAE Systems has a 16% to 18% share of the work.

Babcock International Group PLC will suffer from the immediate scrapping of flagship HMS Ark Royal, which it was responsible for servicing. It likely will be impacted by changes at the naval base at Devonport, which it manages, though those changes aren’t clearly articulated in the government’s program.
QinetiQ Group PLC took a hit as the government canceled the procurement phase of the defense training review program because the project was unaffordable and couldn’t be completed on time....MORE