Over £60m new contract wins

RNS Number : 0501K

Cohort PLC

13 April 2010

 



Northfield House Northfield End Henley-on-Thames Oxfordshire RG9 2JG

Cohort plc

13^th April 2010                                                                                                            AIM: CHRT

PRESS RELEASE

COHORT PLC

Over £60m new contract wins across all three subsidiaries

Cohort plc, the independent technology group, today announces over £60m of new contract wins across its three subsidiary businesses:

·   MASS Consultants Ltd ("MASS") - a nine year in-service support contract valued in excess of £50m from the UK Ministry of Defence ("MoD");

·   Systems Consultants Services Ltd ("SCS") - a one year, £2.2million contract to provide training support to the UK armed forces' Permanent Joint Headquarters ("PJHQ");

·   SEA - a contract valued in excess of £10m to supply the External Communication System ("ECS") for Boat 4 of the Astute Class of nuclear submarines.

MASS - over £50m MoD contract

The contract, for the continuation of the work undertaken for the MoD by MASS since 2000, involves a wide range of specialist technical tasks including operational analysis, studies, IT infrastructure management, software engineering, and management of a secure MoD facility.  MASS will be leading a team that includes MBDA, Hewlett Packard and Carillion Planned Maintenance.

The contract runs until 2019, with an optional five year extension period. It is based on an innovative Target Cost Incentive Fee arrangement in which MASS and the MoD share the benefits of efficiency savings achieved during the course of the contract.

SCS - £2.2m PJHQ contract

The contract is a continuation of a specialist support that SCS has provided to PJHQ since 1998 and in which SCS leads a team that includes Hewlett Packard and L3 Titan.   The scope of work involves the provision of a training environment, including computer simulation, as well as the planning and execution of major exercises. These contribute significantly to PJHQ's readiness to exercise its operational command of all joint UK forces on overseas operations. 

SEA - over £10m ECS contract

This contract, won against strong domestic and international competition, represents an extension of SEA's engagement with both the Astute submarine programme and BAE Systems.  SEA will lead a team including Thales Underwater Systems Ltd, Selex Communications and Aish Technologies Ltd.  SEA was selected as preferred contractor for ECS in September 2009, and has already commenced work under pre-contract authorisation from BAE Systems.

Commenting on developments, Andy Thomis, Chief Executive of Cohort plc said:

"These three contract wins clearly demonstrate a high level of customer confidence in the capability and core skills in each of our subsidiaries.  They reinforce our credentials as a leading provider of defence services and solutions, as well as providing a base of long-term stable income to further underpin future group performance.  We currently expect to close the year with an order book exceeding £100m compared with a total of £47.2m at 30 April 2009."

ENDS

For further information, please contact

Cohort plc Andrew Thomis, Chief Executive Simon Walther, Finance Director	[phone]
Investec Keith Anderson, Daniel Adams	[phone]
Hogarth          Julian Walker, Vicky Watkins	[phone]

Note to Editors

Cohort plc (www.cohortplc.com) is an independent technology group working primarily for defence (air, land and sea), wider government and industry clients, through three market-facing subsidiary companies:

·    MASS (www.mass.co.uk) - a specialist systems house with considerable experience in the defence market and a focus on Information Systems.  Based in Cambridgeshire, MASS was acquired by Cohort in August 2006;

·    SCS(www.scs-ltd.co.uk) - an independent defence consultancy, combining technical expertise with practical experience and domain knowledge. Owned by Cohort since flotation in March 2006;

·    SEA (www.sea.co.uk) - an advanced surveillance systems and software house with hardware development capability operating in the defence, space, transport and offshore market sectors. Acquired by Cohort in October 2007.   

Cohort(AIM: CHRT) was admitted to London's Alternative Investment Market in March 2006. It has its headquarters in Oxfordshire and, through its operating companies, employs in total around 500 core staff there and at bases in Bristol, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire and Somerset.

 

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