Embattled Chemring says its finance director to step down

(Reuters) - British defence contractor Chemring Group Plc (CHG.L), which has been struggling with defence budget cuts in its key markets, said Finance Director Steve Bowers would leave the company.

The company, which makes ejector seats for fighter jets and flares used to counter heat-seeking missiles, said Bowers would join law firm Herbert Smith Freehills as CFO and a search for his replacement had begun.

Bowers, who took over as Chemring's finance director in January 2013, would be the second executive to leave the company this year.

The troubled company said in January its chairman Peter Hickson would step down, and that it would raise 80.8 million pounds ($107.9 million) through a rights issue in order to pay off some of its debt.

Chemring, which has lost more than a third of its value in the last 12 months, has been struggling in Middle Eastern economies, which have taken a hit from the slump in oil prices.

The company secured an ammunition contract in the Middle East in April after several delays that had forced it to warn on profit last year.

Chemring earlier this month reported a larger first-half pretax loss and forecast full-year results slightly below market expectations, hurt by a lower margin sales mix and production issues in its countermeasures unit.

Shares in the Romsey, Hampshire-based company, which was worth more than 1 billion pounds at its peak, were down 0.61 percent at 122 pence at 0701 GMT on Wednesday on the London Stock Exchange.

($1 = 0.7487 pounds)

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Sunil Nair)