THE financial year has started well for engineering giant Babcock, according to a trading update issued before the company's annual general meeting this week.

The company, whose Rosyth base has seen the construction of the Royal Navy's newest aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, said the group was trading "in line" with their expectations and the outlook for the year remained unchanged.

"Since the full year results announcement on 24 May 2017, visibility has continued to improve, with around 82 per cent of revenue now in place for 2017/18 and 55 per cent for 2018/19," said the report.

"The order book and bid pipeline of opportunities have remained stable at around £19.0 billion and £10.5 billion respectively following contract wins, and the tracking pipeline remains buoyant, providing confidence in our ability to grow in line with our expectations this year and over the medium term."

It said the Babcock group continued to make progress over the last seven weeks with work proceeding as expected on their long-term contracts.

"Awards since the start of the financial year include a new contract, worth up to £500 million, to operate a fleet of specialist fixed-wing aircraft for the Norwegian Health Service from summer 2019," added the report.

"We were also formally awarded and have begun mobilisation to deliver all four elements of a MoD programme to become the Marine Systems Support Partner and Systems Technical Authority for the Royal Navy's new Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers and Type 45 Destroyers, expected to be worth in excess of £360 million over seven years."