Babcock nudges down profit forecast on oil and gas woes

British engineer Babcock International nudged down its guidance for annual underlying operating profit and took an exceptional charge of around 85 million pounds ($110 million) to write down the value of its oil and gas assets on Wednesday.

The company, which announced the retirement of boss Archie Bethel earlier this month, said it now expected underlying operating profit to come in at around 540 million pounds compared to a previous forecast of between 540 and 560 million pounds. ($1 = 0.7720 pounds)