The directors present the strategic report for the year ended 31 December 2024.
Turnover in the year was £23.4m (2023: £21.8m) whilst operating profit was £3.5m (2023: £4.8m). The increase in turnover reflects continued strong operational performance and the contribution from a recent contract win with a key customer. Profitability was lower year-on-year, primarily due to increased headcount and investment undertaken to support the onboarding and ongoing requirements of this new contract, together with the impact of foreign exchange movements.
Outlook
The company outlook continues to be positive supported by a strong orderbook and ongoing discussions with customers to deepen relationships.
The medium and long term outlook for the aerospace and industrial gas turbine industries is compelling with strong growth widely predicted in the installed base of commercial, military and aero-derivative industrial gas turbines over the next two decades as well as replacement technology driven by fuel efficient aero-engines. The company and the group are investing in a broad range of technical and engineering capabilities in order to prepare our businesses for growth and to widen our customer and product footprints.
Ownership changes
On 27 January, 2025, Barnes Group Inc. was acquired by Goat Holdco, LLC, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management Inc. (“Apollo”) and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
Key performance indicators
Financial |
2024 |
2023 |
Turnover (£m) | 23.5 | 21.9 |
Profit after interest before taxation (£m) | 5.1 | 6.1 |
Return on sales (%) | 22% | 28% |
Capital and reserves (£m) | 25.9 | 22.2 |
EBITDA (£m) | 4.1 | 5.5 |
The principal risks and uncertainties affecting the business include the following:
Raw material availability and prices: the company monitors raw material sources on a continuing basis and negotiates forward purchase contracts where appropriate with key suppliers and is largely able to pass through price increases to its customers under contract
Contract risk: the company conducts significant elements of its business under customer contracts which include performance and other delivery conditions. The key to the management of contract risk is robust tendering procedures supported by effective operational management. Rigorous tender review processes are in place across the company and tenders whose values and profiles are in excess of pre-set qualitative and quantitative parameters must be approved by the board of directors prior to issue.
Health and Safety: health and safety risks are continually assessed by management and we constantly assess and challenge the risks in the business to ensure we provide a safe working environment for all.
Foreign currency exchange: the company monitors closely short, medium and long term exchange rates across the entire Group's operations and hedges currency at the Group level where appropriate.
Environmental risks: the company places considerable emphasis upon environmental compliance in each of its businesses and not only seeks to ensure ongoing compliance with relevant legislation but also strives to ensure that environmental best practice is incorporated into its key processes.
Commercial relationships: the company maintains strong relationships with each of its key customers and has established credit control parameters. Appropriate credit terms are agreed with all customers and these are closely managed.
The effect of legislation or other regulatory activities: the company monitors forthcoming and current legislation regularly. The company reviews on an ongoing basis the potential impact of any tariffs impacting raw material purchases and use of US outside service providers. The company conducts scenario analyses for potential disruption as well as reviewing potential pass-through strategy to customers.
Key areas of strategic development and performance of the business include:
Sales and marketing: new and replacement business is being won continually; new markets have been developed in line with the company's strategy; key customer relationships are monitored on a regular basis. We continue to seek new and strategic customers.
Customer performance: maintaining and improving the standards of performance to customers in the areas of delivery, quality and cost alongside the development and sustainment of capabilities in our late life supply chains.
Health and Safety: the company continues to seek ways of ensuring that a safe and healthy working environment is progressively improved.
Competitive advantage: the company focuses on areas where it has a competitive advantage, which places it well in terms of superior long term income/cash flow growth potential.
On behalf of the board
The directors present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2024.
The results for the year are set out on page 10.
No ordinary dividends were paid. The directors do not recommend payment of a final dividend.
The directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
The company's policy is to minimise the use of complex financial instruments. Within this framework specific consideration is given to managing foreign currency risk through forward contracts where there is significant potential exposure. The Company's operations expose it to certain financial risks that include the effects of foreign exchange risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, and interest rate risk. The overall risk management programme focuses on the unpredictability of the financial markets and seeks to minimise potential adverse effects on financial performance of the Company.
The company relies upon internal cash generation and intercompany financing to ensure it has sufficient funds for operations and planned expansions. The company's parent manages its cash requirements centrally to maximise interest income and minimise interest expense, whilst ensuring that the company has sufficient liquid resources to meet its operating needs.
The Group has only interest-bearing financing liabilities. Its policy is to maintain the majority of its facilities at floating rates. The directors review the appropriateness of this policy in response to actual or anticipated changes in interest rates in its principal trading currencies.
Foreign exchange risk is managed by the company's parent. The Group looks to minimise its exposure to fluctuations in foreign exchange rates across its operations. Due to the nature of the company's commercial contracts the company has minimal exposure to price risk, credit risk, liquidity risk and cash flow risk. It monitors and takes action in each of these areas.
The Company's policy is to perform appropriate credit checks on potential customers, ensuring they have appropriate credit history, before sales are made. In addition, credit checks are made regularly on those customers who are deemed to be a significant credit risk to the Company.
Please refer to the notes to financial statements for details of post reporting date events.
In accordance with the company's articles, a resolution proposing that Azets Audit Services be reappointed as auditor of the company will be put at a General Meeting.
Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law the directors have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (United Kingdom Accounting Standards and applicable law). Under company law, the directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of the profit or loss of the company for that period.
In preparing these financial statements, the directors are required to:
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
make judgements and accounting estimates that are reasonable and prudent; and
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the company will continue in business.
The directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
We have audited the financial statements of MB Aerospace Limited (the 'company') for the year ended 31 December 2024 which comprise the profit and loss account, the statement of comprehensive income, the balance sheet, the statement of changes in equity and notes to the financial statements, including significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including Financial Reporting Standard 102 The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
Basis for opinion
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors' use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.
Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the directors with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.
Other information
Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006
In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of our audit:
the information given in the strategic report and the directors' report for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the strategic report and the directors' report have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.
A further description of our responsibilities is available on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: https://www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.
Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud
Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above and on the Financial Reporting Council’s website, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud.
We obtain and update our understanding of the entity, its activities, its control environment, and likely future developments, including in relation to the legal and regulatory framework applicable and how the entity is complying with that framework. Based on this understanding, we identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design and perform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. This includes consideration of the risk of acts by the entity that were contrary to applicable laws and regulations, including fraud.
In response to the risk of irregularities and non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud, we designed procedures which included:
Enquiry of management and those charged with governance around actual and potential litigation and claims as well as actual, suspected and alleged fraud;
Assessing the extent of compliance with the laws and regulations considered to have a direct material effect on the financial statements or the operations of the company through enquiry and inspection;
Reviewing financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with applicable laws and regulations;
Performing audit work over the risk of management bias and override of controls, including testing of journal entries and other adjustments for appropriateness, evaluating the business rationale of significant transactions outside the normal course of business and reviewing accounting estimates for indicators of potential bias.
Because of the inherent limitations of an audit, there is a risk that we will not detect all irregularities, including those leading to a material misstatement in the financial statements or non-compliance with regulation. This risk increases the more that compliance with a law or regulation is removed from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, as we will be less likely to become aware of instances of non-compliance. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
Use of our report
This report is made solely to the company's member in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the company's member those matters we are required to state to the member in an auditor's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the company and the company's member, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.
The profit and loss account has been prepared on the basis that all operations are continuing operations.
MB Aerospace Limited is a private company limited by shares incorporated in Scotland. The registered office is 1 George Square, Glasgow, United Kingdom, G2 1AL.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the company. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £'000.
Reduced disclosure exemptions
This company is a qualifying entity for the purposes of FRS 102, being a member of a group where the parent of that group prepares publicly available consolidated financial statements, including this company, which are intended to give a true and fair view of the assets, liabilities, financial position and profit or loss of the group. The company has therefore taken advantage of exemptions from the following disclosure requirements:
Section 7 ‘Statement of Cash Flows’: Presentation of a statement of cash flow and related notes and disclosures;
Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instrument Issues: Interest income/expense and net gains/losses for financial instruments not measured at fair value; basis of determining fair values; details of collateral, loan defaults or breaches, details of hedges, hedging fair value changes recognised in profit or loss and in other comprehensive income;
Section 26 ‘Share based Payment’: Share-based payment expense charged to profit or loss, reconciliation of opening and closing number and weighted average exercise price of share options, how the fair value of options granted was measured, measurement and carrying amount of liabilities for cash-settled share-based payments, explanation of modifications to arrangements;
Section 33 ‘Related Party Disclosures’: Compensation for key management personnel.
MB Aerospace Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Barnes Group Inc and the results of MB Aerospace Limited are included in the 2024 consolidated financial statements which are available from its registered office.
The company recognises revenue from the following major sources:
Sale of goods
The nature, timing of satisfaction of performance obligations and significant payment terms of the company's major sources of revenue are as follows:
The gain or loss arising on the disposal of an asset is determined as the difference between the sale proceeds and the carrying value of the asset, and is credited or charged to profit or loss.
Basic financial assets, which include debtors and cash and bank balances, are initially measured at transaction price including transaction costs and are subsequently carried at amortised cost using the effective interest method unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the transaction is measured at the present value of the future receipts discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial assets classified as receivable within one year are not amortised.
Other financial assets, including investments in equity instruments which are not subsidiaries, associates or joint ventures, are initially measured at fair value, which is normally the transaction price. Such assets are subsequently carried at fair value and the changes in fair value are recognised in profit or loss, except that investments in equity instruments that are not publicly traded and whose fair values cannot be measured reliably are measured at cost less impairment.
Financial assets are derecognised only when the contractual rights to the cash flows from the asset expire or are settled, or when the company transfers the financial asset and substantially all the risks and rewards of ownership to another entity, or if some significant risks and rewards of ownership are retained but control of the asset has transferred to another party that is able to sell the asset in its entirety to an unrelated third party.
Financial liabilities and equity instruments are classified according to the substance of the contractual arrangements entered into. An equity instrument is any contract that evidences a residual interest in the assets of the company after deducting all of its liabilities.
Basic financial liabilities, including creditors, bank loans, loans from fellow group companies and preference shares that are classified as debt, are initially recognised at transaction price unless the arrangement constitutes a financing transaction, where the debt instrument is measured at the present value of the future payments discounted at a market rate of interest. Financial liabilities classified as payable within one year are not amortised.
Debt instruments are subsequently carried at amortised cost, using the effective interest rate method.
Trade creditors are obligations to pay for goods or services that have been acquired in the ordinary course of business from suppliers. Amounts payable are classified as current liabilities if payment is due within one year or less. If not, they are presented as non-current liabilities. Trade creditors are recognised initially at transaction price and subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method.
Derivatives, including interest rate swaps and forward foreign exchange contracts, are not basic financial instruments. Derivatives are initially recognised at fair value on the date a derivative contract is entered into and are subsequently re-measured at their fair value. Changes in the fair value of derivatives are recognised in profit or loss in finance costs or finance income as appropriate, unless hedge accounting is applied and the hedge is a cash flow hedge.
Debt instruments that do not meet the conditions in FRS 102 paragraph 11.9 are subsequently measured at fair value through profit or loss. Debt instruments may be designated as being measured at fair value through profit or loss to eliminate or reduce an accounting mismatch or if the instruments are measured and their performance evaluated on a fair value basis in accordance with a documented risk management or investment strategy.
Financial liabilities are derecognised when the company’s contractual obligations expire or are discharged or cancelled.
Equity instruments issued by the company are recorded at the proceeds received, net of transaction costs. Dividends payable on equity instruments are recognised as liabilities once they are no longer at the discretion of the company.
At inception, the company assesses whether a contract is, or contains, a lease. A lease arises where the contract conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time in exchange for consideration. Control of the use of an asset occurs where the company has both the right to direct the use of the asset, and the right to obtain substantially all the economic benefits from that use.
Where a tangible asset is acquired through a lease, the company recognises a right-of-use asset and a lease liability at the lease commencement date. Right-of-use assets are included within the same line items on the Balance sheet as owned assets.
The right-of-use asset is initially measured at cost, which comprises the initial measurement of the lease liability adjusted for lease payments made at or before the commencement date less any lease incentives or grants received, plus initial direct costs and an estimate of the cost of obligations to dismantle, remove or restore the underlying asset and the site on which it is located.
The right-of-use asset is subsequently adjusted for remeasurements of the lease liability and applies the relevant cost model, fair value model or revaluation model as set out within the accounting policies for the applicable asset class. Where the cost model is applied, the asset is depreciated from the commencement date to the earlier of the end of the useful life of the right-of-use asset or the end of the lease term, and is periodically reduced by impairment losses, if any.
The lease liability is initially measured at the present value of the lease payments that are unpaid at the commencement date, discounted using the interest rate implicit in the lease or, if that rate cannot be readily determined, the company's incremental borrowing rate or the company’s obtainable borrowing rate. Lease payments included in the measurement of the lease liability comprise fixed payments less any lease incentives receivable, variable lease payments that depend on an index or a rate, amounts expected to be payable under residual value guarantees, the exercise price of any purchase options that the company is reasonably certain to exercise, and any penalties for early termination of a lease.
At each financial period end, the lease liability is adjusted to reflect payments made and interest accrued. Also, the lease liability is remeasured to reflect lease modifications and any changes to the factors considered at initial measurement, as set out above. When the lease liability is remeasured in this way, a corresponding adjustment is made to the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset, or recognised in profit or loss if the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset has been reduced to zero.
The company has elected not to recognise right-of-use assets and lease liabilities for short-term leases of machinery that have a lease term of 12 months or less, or for leases of low-value assets including IT equipment. The payments associated with these leases are recognised in profit or loss on a straight-line basis over the lease term.
In the application of the company’s accounting policies, the directors are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.
The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.
The following judgements and estimates have had the most significant effect on amounts recognised in the financial statements.
Management exercise judgement in assessing revenue recognition in respect of customised products. This assessment includes determining whether the product has no realistic alternative use to the entity and whether it has an enforceable right to payment for performance completed to date as the product is manufactured. Where both conditions are met, revenue is recognised over time using the margin multiplier approach.
The margin multiplier used is estimated based by management based on recent contracts, forecasts and other facts and circumstances. The margin multiplier is reviewed as the contract progresses with any changes recognised prospectively. At the year end, a change in margin multiplier on contracts in progress by +/- 1% could increase or decrease revenue recognised by c. £230,000 (2023 - £165,000).
Inventories are valued at the lower of cost and net realisable value. Cost comprises direct materials and, where applicable, direct labour costs and those overheads that have been incurred in bringing the stocks to their present location and condition. Management applies judgement and estimation in respect of the absorption of labour and overheads in the production of stock.
Net realisable value includes, where necessary, provisions for slow moving and obsolete stocks. Calculation of these provisions requires judgement to be made in evaluating currently available facts based on a broad range of information and prior experience. Inherent uncertainties exist in such evaluations and the amounts included in the financial statements reflect estimates based on the information available to management at the time of determination and are reassessed at each reporting date.
The average monthly number of persons (including directors) employed by the company during the year was:
Their aggregate remuneration comprised:
No directors are remunerated through the company.
The actual charge for the year can be reconciled to the expected charge for the year based on the profit or loss and the standard rate of tax as follows:
Tangible fixed assets includes right-of-use assets, as follows:
The company has lease contracts for its property and certain items of plant and machinery. The company does not face significant liquidity risk with regard to its lease liabilities and these are monitored as part of the overall process of managing cash flows.
Lease liabilities are classified based on the amounts that are expected to be settled within the next 12 months and after more than 12 months from the reporting date. The amount recognised in the profit and loss accounts in interest on lease liabilties was £98,000 (2023 - £180,000).
The following are the major deferred tax liabilities and assets recognised by the company and movements thereon:
The company operates a defined contribution pension scheme for all qualifying employees. The assets of the scheme are held separately from those of the company in an independently administered fund.
The company has one class of ordinary shares. There are no restrictions on the distribution of dividends and the repayment of capital.
On 27 January 2025, Barnes Group Inc was acquired by Goat Holdco, LLC, an affiliate of Apollo Global Management Inc. ("Apollo") and delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Apollo is a high growth, global alternative asset manager.
At the year end, the company was due £18.0m (2023 - £12.3m) from group entities. Balances owed to group are subject to a net set off arrangement. All group loans fall due on demand and are interest free.
The company has taken exemption under FRS 102.33.1A from disclosing transactions entered into between two or more members of a group, provided that any subsidiary which is a party to the transaction is wholly owned by such a member.