At Babcock our long-term perspective shapes everything we do. We set our sights across generations by building deep, enduring partnerships with our customers, to navigate a rapidly changing world.
Through life-time engineering and unique expertise, we work across our key sectors Marine, Nuclear, Land and Aviation to deliver the innovative capability our customers need today and into the future.
FY26 was a year of strong progress and performance, demonstrating how our strategy and unique capabilities are delivering stakeholder value.
FY26 key statistics
£5.2bn
Revenue
c.80%
Defence & Nuclear
£9.8bn
Contract backlog
c.29,000
Employees
Global revenue profile
UK
North America
Europe
AUS & NZ
South Africa
ROW
Revenue market split
Defence UK
Defence International
Civil UK
Civil International
Contract backlog market split
Defence UK
Defence International
Civil UK
Civil International
Revenue by sector
Marine
Nuclear
Land
Aviation
Read our At a glance here
Delivered through our four sectors
We deliver differentiated and complex programme support, product and training capabilities, in core markets critical to our customers. We do this through our four operating sectors, Marine, Nuclear, Land and Aviation. Our multi-domain expertise, strategic assets and long standing customer relationships underpin delivery of complex, high-barrier programmes, providing trusted, lifetime engineering.
Delivering lifetime engineering
We offer customers integrated solutions, delivered in dynamic collaboration through strategic partnerships. A lifecycle of product, support and training, informed by decades-long operational asset knowledge resulting in long-term delivery: capability, availability and affordability.
Read more on lifetime engineering
Capability life-cycle: our end-to-end vision
Investment case
Across the year, we focused on markets where our engineering expertise, critical infrastructure and customer relationships created durable competitive advantage. We have built a track record of stronger growth, improved profitability and growing shareholder returns and we are well positioned to deliver long-term value for all our stakeholders.
Why invest in Babcock, our compelling investment proposition:
- Mission-critical defence and strategic resilience
- Differentiated capability in complex, lifetime engineering
- Deep customer embed and long-term relationships
- Partnership-led model with supply chain integration strength
- Clear growth runway with improving returns
- Cash generative with disciplined capital allocation
Chair
Dame Ruth Cairnie DBE
“As we look ahead, the Board believes the Group is well positioned to deliver sustainable growth, supported by our strong market positions, disciplined strategy and continued focus on execution.”
Read our Chair review here
Chief Executive Officer
David Lockwood OBE
“Babcock is a more resilient business today, with clear momentum, strong visibility and another year of strong progress. Our deep engineering know-how, proven operational delivery and close customer relationships position us well to deliver for the long-term.
With our core capabilities aligned to our customers’ evolving priorities, we are building high-quality long-term growth opportunities. Our people remain our most important asset, and we continue to build a talent-led culture with the right skills, capability and leadership. I leave with confidence that the Group is well positioned for its next phase of delivery, growth and value creation.”
Read our CEO review here
Deputy Chief Executive Officer
Harry Holt
Becoming CEO on 1 August 2026
“I feel both purposeful and excited about taking on leadership of Babcock, because what we do matters. In an increasingly uncertain world, our role in defence, nuclear and national strategic resilience has never been more relevant. Long-term trends are creating significant opportunities in our core markets and the next chapter for Babcock will build on our strong foundations.
With a clear strategy, aligned leadership, differentiated capabilities and attractive market positions and a continued focus on growth, performance, operational execution and disciplined capital allocation, we are well placed to deliver sustainable growth and long-term value.”
Chief Financial Officer
David Mellors
“We achieved strong underlying growth, improved margins and robust cash generation, while securing important contract wins that further strengthen our position in markets.”
Read our Financial review here
FY26 financial performance highlights
Revenue
£5,178m
2025: £4,831m
Underlying operating profit*
£433m
2025: £363m
Underlying margin*
8.2%
2025: 7.5%
Underlying cash conversion*
84%
2025: 82%
Underlying free cash flow
£262m
2025: £153m
Net debt (excluding leases)
£(23)m
2025: £(101)m
Our strategy is positioning us for
long-term growth
Guided by our Purpose, ‘to create a safe and secure world, together’, our strategic framework prioritises capability, delivery, performance and efficiency, focusing on key areas of development to drive and deliver long-term growth and shareholder value.
Our key focus areas
We have identified four key areas of strategic focus in order to help us deliver our long-term strategy.
Civil Nuclear
We are strongly positioned to capture powerful global nuclear megatrends. Babcock, is the UK’s largest sovereign provider of civil and defence nuclear services. New nuclear presents a significant growth opportunity for our clean energy business, both in the UK and internationally, over the near, medium and long term.
Read more in our Annual Report
Technology
Technology is embedded in everything we do. Geopolitical shifts and emerging technologies are changing the nature of the defence and energy security landscape, and highlighting the importance of critical sovereign capabilities and resilience.
Read more in our Annual Report
People and skills
We take a foundations-to-future approach to developing our people and their skills. Our focus is on building a diverse and resilient workforce, equipped with the engineering and technical capabilities required to deliver complex programmes and pursue new opportunities across defence and civil markets.
Read more in our Annual Report
Commitment to society
Across our operations and supply chain, we deliver impactful initiatives that reinforce trust, strengthen partnerships and create a positive, lasting impact for society and the communities we work within. This is fundamental to how we create sustainable, long term value for all our stakeholders.
Read more in our Annual Report
Sustainability and delivering our strategy
At Babcock we strive to help safeguard our planet and support our people and communities. Sustainability is a key pillar of our business strategy and a key enabler to achieving our Purpose and success. Across 2026, we delivered progress against our recently launched sustainability strategy.
Learn more about our approach to sustainability and see our latest policies, statements and reports:
Sustainability