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Defence giant Babcock International Group Plc has seen a huge jump in pre-tax profits to £152.5million in just six months.

The company, which runs Devonport Dockyard in Plymouth, saw statutory profit for the half year to the end of September 2019 jump from the £65.1million made in the same period in 2018.

The engineering firm, which has just landed a £1.25billion contract to build five new Type 31 frigates for the Royal Navy, said results were in line with expectations.

But underlying revenue was flat at £2.458billion and statutory revenue was down 2.7%.

However, the company, which had suffered as major contracts such as the new aircraft carrier project ended, was upbeat about the future where it expects underlying revenue for the full year to be about £4.9billion and underlying profit to hit between £540million and £560million with stronger than expected trading in its land and marine divisions, the latter based in Plymouth.

In a report to the Stock Exchange, the London-headquartered company said its order book and pipeline was up 10% since march 2019, and stands at a record £34billion.

The order book alone, following the frigate win, is now worth £18billion. Overall Babcock has won £3.5billion in contracts including a new £300million deal to train the Metropolitan Police.

Chief executive Archie Bethel said: "Today's results show we are doing what we said we would do. Our delivery in the first half is in line with our expectations, with good performance across most of the Group. In particular, strong performance from our Marine business has offset some weakness in the Aviation sector.