British aero engineer Hampson Industries said that its full year profit would fall short of market expectations due to a slowdown in orders at its aircraft tooling unit, sending its shares to a seven year low.

Mr Howard Kimberley finance director of Hampson told Reuters that "Our largest tooling business has been impacted by order delays across a number of aircraft programs. Full year pretax profit would fall materially below current market estimates."

He added that "The Lear is one of those programs and the Boeing 787 has been somewhat delayed, which has hit Boeing's sub contractors, each of which have a relationship with our facility."

The company said in June that the rate of recovery at its tooling business, which supplies the defense, commercial aerospace and space industries, had been slower than it had anticipated.

The group's composite component businesses also saw delays in the placement of orders by customers for some military programs which it said would be received in the second half.

(Sourced from www.reuters.com)