Investec has reiterated its 'buy' rating and 280p target price for defence contractor Chemring following Thursday's appointment of a new Finance Director in Steve Bowers.

"We regard Steve highly and the market should welcome a further strengthening of the executive team charged with steering the group after a difficult year," the broker said.

The market did just that on Thursday morning, with shares up 3.99% at 247.82p by 10:45.

Along with Chemring's new Chief Executive Officer Mark Papworth who was appointed in November, Investec said that this "completes wholesale change of the executive management team."

The broker said: "This is a another small but important step in re-building investor confidence as the company stabilises and addresses the multiple operational 'issues' that adversely impacted profitability. It is still early days in this respect and risks remain, although increasingly we are seeing them as market related (as for all defence companies) rather than unforeseen operational risks.

"Given the opportunity for the business to recover margins and de-lever, we maintain our view that the risk/reward profile is increasingly attractive to investors."

BC

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