Babcock International may be integral to the defence of the realm, but the repairer of warships and submarines is in need of covering fire itself.
Covid-19 has wounded the FTSE 250 engineering services group, which also manages the Devonport and Faslane naval bases. It has far bigger problems of its own making, however.
The Ministry of Defence accounts for almost half of Babcock’s sales, which totalled £4.9 billion in the year to the end of March. The company’s other interests include nearly 500 aircraft providing services such as medical emergency and firefighting in Spain and Italy.
Yet investors have long been wary of skeletons in the cupboard. This and the implosion of the support services sector helped to knock Babcock out of the FTSE 100