£4bn Navy deal back on course

A £4 billion contract to build two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy, safeguarding 10,000 British shipyard and allied jobs and creating 1000 more, is to be signed soon, after months of apparent paralysis in Whitehall, the Evening Standard has learned.

Construction and maintenance agreements will be "signed off in a matter weeks" by Ministry of Defence officials in a deal that gives a green light to the merger of the shipbuilding interests of BAE Systems and VT.

There had been fears the contract could bemothballed or abandoned. VT chief executive Paul Lester said he had yet to officially hear of the go-ahead but added: "We believe we have real momentum on this now. We have said all along that if we don't sign off on this in the next few months, we would be into slippage mode. That means having to lay people off and cost overruns."

The carrier contract and a big MoD military flying training project are set to bring in another £1.3 billion of work for the VT order book, which at today's results for the year to the end of April was up 32% at £4.9 billion.

Underlying profits leapt 20% to £89 million on revenues a fifth higher at £1.2 billion.