Meggitt PLC (MGGT.LN) Tuesday reported a 9% rise in adjusted full-year pretax profit and a similar hike in its dividend and offered a bullish assessment of its future prospects, bolstered by a strong performance in its energy business.

The energy business was "going great guns," Chief Executive Terry Twigger told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview.

Orders for the energy products, which make up only a small part of Meggitt's business, tripled in 2010, Twigger said. In the first couple of months of 2011, "order intake has continued at that level," he added.

Meggitt makes components for aircraft and generates roughly 42% of its revenue from the civil aerospace market, 44% from the military market and 14% from other markets, primarily energy, where its fluid controls, heat management and sensing and monitoring capabilities are deployed to help reduce maintenance costs, fuel consumption and carbon emissions of industrial gas and steam turbines.

"Within the energy market, demand for new power generation equipment was subdued, but existing operators continued to spend money maintaining and upgrading their plants," the company said in its full-year report. "We expect the (original equipment) energy market to return to growth in 2011, with aftermarket demand likely to continue to grow faster."

The company announced a 9% rise in its full-year dividend to 9.2 pence per share after it reported pretax profit in 2010 adjusted for amortization of acquired intangibles, operating exceptional items and the marking to market of financial instruments rose to GBP256.1 million from GBP234.2 million in 2009.

Revenue rose 1% to GBP1.16 billion and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization climbed 6% to GBP364.4 million.

That performance was due in large part to the recovery in Meggitt's civil aerospace and energy markets in the second half of 2010.

It is optimistic in the outlook for its civil aerospace business. It predicts growth of 7% to 8% a year in revenue for original equipment for five years to 2015 helped by strong growth in business jets and new platform introductions including the Boeing Co. (BA) 787, Airbus A350 and Bombardier Inc. (BBD.B.T) CSeries.

In the aftermarket, it expects revenue to grow about 8% to 9% per annum over the five years to 2015.

Meggitt expects it military markets to remain robust. It said it was well positioned on current platforms such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, V22, F35 Joint Strike Fighter, E/F-18 Super Hornet and Black Hawk, but it was "not overly exposed to any single one."

Despite budgetary pressures in the U.S., its most important military market, Meggitt expects military revenue to continue to grow by about 2% compound over the next few years, even with a substantial reduction in utilization of certain aircraft types following the planned draw down of troops from Afghanistan.

Its operating margin jumped to 26.1% from 24.9% and net debt fell 11% to GBP721.4 million from GBP808.6 million as net cash generation improved to GBP137.1 million from GBP126 million.

At 0927 GMT, its shares traded up 16 pence, or 4.8%, at 355 pence, making it one of the biggest gainers in the FTSE 250 index, which traded up 1%. Meggitt's shares have gained 22% in value in the past 12 months.

Investec Securities in a note to clients said results were "modestly ahead of our expectations at all lines," and described its shares as too cheap.

-By Jonathan Buck, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)207 842 9237; jonathan.buck@dowjones.com