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UK defense and engineering services company providing support, maintenance and training for military naval, air and land equipment.
UK defense and engineering services company providing support, maintenance and training for military naval, air and land equipment.
Paid mostly through multi-year government contracts to maintain, upgrade and sometimes run defence assets, such as the Royal Navy dockyard at Devonport, so income is steady and tied to defence budgets. The UK Ministry of Defence is by far the largest customer. A restructuring since 2020 narrowed it to defence and nuclear work.
In one line: A UK defense-services contractor, like a smaller Leidos or a BAE Systems services arm.
Moat: narrow (regulatory licence, customer qualification, installed base). Long-term government contracts and security clearances create high barriers and switching costs for defense customers.
Headquarters: London, UK · Founded: 1891 · Employees: 30,398
Size Babcock International (BAB.L) is a United Kingdom Industrials company (Trucks/Construction/Farm Machinery) with a market value of $6.60B, the 74th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £1,006 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 0.1%, against -13.1% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 6th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 7.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +8.6%); the operating margin is 5.9% (peer median 12.0%).
Valuation It trades at 15.4× forward earnings against a peer median of 16.1× (8th cheapest of 20).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 13% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is +8 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 11.8 points above its cost of capital (11.2% WACC).
Credit Babcock International has 1 bond outstanding ($613M), rated BBB+ by the agencies.
Next results Next results expected around 19 Nov 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £5.18B | £5.18B | £4.83B | £4.39B | £4.44B |
| Revenue growth | — | +7% | +10% | -1% | — |
| Gross profit | £305M | £984M | £932M | £699M | £834M |
| EBITDA | £445M | £423M | £471M | £332M | £333M |
| Net income | £211M | £211M | £247M | £166M | -£35.0M |
| Free cash flow | £263M | £263M | £216M | £212M | £166M |
| Capital expenditure | £160M | £160M | £128M | £142M | £125M |
| Total debt | n/a | £1.10B | £1.03B | £998M | £1.02B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babcock International BAB.L | $6.60B | 0% | +7% | 6% | 15.4× | 13.2% |
| BAE Systems BA..L | $72.6B | -4% | +7% | 9% | 22.0× | 2.8% |
| Leidos LDOS | $16.2B | +2% | +3% | 12% | 11.4× | -6.4% |
| Serco SRP.L | $3.60B | +5% | +1% | 5% | 14.9× | 1.9% |
| QinetiQ QQ..L | $3.51B | +26% | 0% | 10% | 15.3× | 0.1% |
| Thales HO.PA | $51.1B | -1% | +7% | 11% | 20.6× | -2.8% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | BAB.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +11.3% | -8.7% | 2nd highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | -0.1% | -13.1% | 6th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -34.1% | -30.9% | 9th lowest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +7.2% | +8.6% | 10th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 5.9% | 12.0% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 15.4× | 16.1× | 8th cheapest of 20 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 13.2% | 3.1% | 3rd most demanding of 19 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +5.5% | +11.8% | 2nd lowest of 19 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +7.7 pp | -8.2 pp | 3rd most demanding of 19 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +11.8 pp | +3.9 pp | 7th highest of 19 |
| EV / EBITDA | 11.8× | 11.9× | 8th cheapest of 15 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.8× | 1.3× | 6th least indebted of 16 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Babcock International BAB.L | United Kingdom | $6.60B | 0% | +7% | 6% | 15.4× | 13.2% | +5.5% |
| Hitachi Construction Machinery 6305.T | Japan | $6.36B | -12% | +7% | 10% | 11.2× | 3.9% | +11.6% |
| Terex TEX | United States | $6.18B | -14% | +40% | 7% | 9.9× | 12.1% | +12.0% |
| Doosan 000150.KS | South Korea | $7.10B | -60% | +11% | 6% | 16.1× | 15.0% | +11.6% |
| Accelleron Industries ACLN.SW | Switzerland | $7.29B | -25% | +13% | 25% | 25.1× | 3.5% | +12.1% |
| Konecranes KCR.HE | Finland | $7.47B | +5% | -1% | 13% | 15.9× | 9.1% | +5.7% |
| Gaztransport & Technigaz GTT.PA | France | $7.50B | -13% | +9% | 64% | 16.1× | -3.1% | +15.2% |
| Hyundai Rotem 064350.KS | South Korea | $5.75B | -73% | +12% | 15% | 9.7× | -4.0% | +16.0% |
| AGCO AGCO | United States | $7.61B | -6% | +1% | 6% | 17.1× | 10.5% | +2.0% |
| TKMS AG & Co. KGaA TKMS.DE | Germany | $5.57B | +8% | +15% | 5% | 39.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Alstom ALO.PA | France | $5.56B | -40% | +4% | 4% | n/a | 2.7% | +16.9% |
| Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders MAZDOCK.NS | India | $7.87B | -31% | +8% | 15% | 30.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Kongsberg Maritime KMAR.OL | Norway | $5.43B | -1% | +6% | 13% | 21.8× | 0.9% | +6.3% |
| Weir WEIR.L | United Kingdom | $8.18B | -3% | +6% | 18% | 18.1× | 19.3% | +5.5% |
| Fincantieri FCT.MI | Italy | $4.98B | +3% | -1% | 0% | 21.5× | 1.2% | +9.1% |
| Seatrium 5E2.SI | Singapore | $4.77B | -19% | +11% | 4% | 13.0× | 4.0% | +50.0% |
| Zhejiang Dingli Machinery 603338.SS | China | $4.57B | +9% | +29% | 22% | 14.8× | 1.6% | +23.7% |
| Toro TTC | United States | $9.92B | +10% | +5% | 11% | 21.2× | 5.6% | +6.0% |
| SamsungHvyInd 010140.KS | South Korea | $10.2B | -50% | +30% | 27% | 13.3× | -20.3% | +11.4% |
| CSSC Offshore & Marine Engineering (Group) 600685.SS | China | $4.16B | -19% | +5% | 1% | 23.9× | 1.1% | +12.1% |
| Hanwha Ocean 042660.KS | South Korea | $10.7B | -64% | +18% | 13% | 8.7× | -12.4% | +13.2% |
Babcock International has 1 bond outstanding with $613M face value. The agencies rate it BBB+.