Profits for the six months to September 30 rose to 14.8million pounds before tax from 13.8 million a year ago, and the interim dividend was raised nine per cent to nine pence a share on earnings up eight per cent at 30.5 pence.

Vosper's share price jumped on the good news, which followed a seven-per cent rise in annual profits six months ago.

Group turnover was up four per cent at 100 million pounds, with the narrower margin reflecting the increasing importance of the support services division, where revenue was up by 78 per cent on a year ago at around 43 million pounds.

The support services division was already poised to win two Royal Navy training contracts before the end of the year, together worth an average 20 million pounds a year in extra revenue, said chief executive Martin Jay.

Together the 20-year and 13-year deals, for provision of firefighting training and technical support services, would be worth 330 million pounds over the lifetime of the contracts, and the company was also chasing new business with the British Army and Royal Air Force, he said.

"It's the very strong growth that we have achieved in support services and it is the fact that we have got absolutely brilliant prospects for future orders on the support side that makes me so confident," he told Reuters in an interview.

The company order book now stood at 653 million pounds, up a net 163 million pounds in the last six months, with new orders totalling 263 million pounds. The company said support services accounted for over 400 million pounds of orders and shipbuilding 200 million pounds.

Marine products, Vosper's third division, which specialises in motion control systems for fast ferries, accounted for 21 per cent of turnover in the half-year.

The shipbuilding business, which accounted for 36 per cent of sales, was also chasing a number of new orders at home and abroad, Jay said.

But, the Southampton yard now had work for at least the next two years, thanks to two new orders this year, for four river Thames passenger boats and a prototype trimaran warship for the Royal Navy.

This gave breathing space for the company to win new work to keep the shipbuilding division's 1,200 workforce fully employed, Jay said.

In Britain, the company was pursuing a 100-million pound Royal Navy requirement for three large hydrographic survey vessels, now due to be awarded in the first half of next year.

Overseas the company was still competing in the Middle East and Asia for various orders, together worth several billion pounds. These range from a huge UAE requirement for a fleet of corvettes, offshore patrol vessels and minehunters to 34-metre cutters for Vietnam and Yemen, worth around 20-30 million pounds.

Low oil prices and economic turmoil could delay decisions further. But Jay was none too worried, he said.

And longer term he said Vosper would also be competing against its only real domestic rival GEC Marine to build Britain's requirement for 12 new Horizon frigates, which are likely to be worth over 200 million pounds a piece.

"We have a sufficient workload and what I am very confident of is that we are going to turn at least one of the UK or overseas prospects into a contract within the window that these recent contracts has given us," Jay said.