Cohort - FY21 delivers growth despite pandemic

Cohort has progressed once again in FY21 despite significant constraints placed on parts of the business due to the pandemic. The five-month initial consolidation of ELAC enabled a small advance in adjusted PBT and a full FY22 contribution should help to offset an anticipated sharp decline at EID in Portugal. As all of the other ongoing divisions are expected to improve in FY22 supported by the record group order backlog, a small increase in adjusted PBT is still forecast. We expect a resumption of growth in FY23 as EID improves. The FY23 P/E of 13.7x looks undemanding especially given valuations being established elsewhere in the UK defence sector.