Hello, I'm Andy Thomis, Chief Executive at Cohort PLC. I'm here to take you through our final results for the financial year ended in April 2025. I'm happy to say that overall we've once again seen a very strong performance: record operating profit, record revenue, and a record closing order book. That's the result of hard work and development of the business over a long time, and we're now showing real momentum. Here are the numbers: revenue and profit both up strongly. Revenue grew by 33%, Adjusted operating profit was up 30%, Adjusted earnings per share grew 27% ahead of external expectations. We significantly beat our expectations for Net funds. It was another good period for new orders, which are of course the best leading indicator for future growth.
Order intake of GBP 285 million significantly exceeded the revenue we recognized, so the Total order book had grown to over GBP 616 million at the year-end. If we aim off to take account of the one-off large order from the Royal Navy in 2024-2025, order intake actually exceeded last year's. That order book covers 79% of our expected revenue for the year. It'll be generating revenue for us well into the 2030s. Our operating Cash flow was very strong, significantly exceeding profit and helping us to maintain our positive Net cash position despite expenditure on two acquisitions and a major new facility. Against that positive background, the board has declared a final dividend of GBP 11.05 per share. That results in a Total dividend for the year of GBP 16.30 per share, once again representing an increase of 10% on last year's. This slide shows the main factors behind the Group's performance improvement.
We saw good revenue growth in both divisions this year, especially communications and intelligence. As we'd expected, EID made a positive contribution with its newly strengthened order book. MCL had another record year, successfully integrating its acquisition of ITS and managing an exceptional flow of urgent operational requirements with great skill and agility. Our most recent acquisition, EM Solutions, provided a maiden contribution to the Group in the final quarter. The integration of EM Solutions has gone smoothly, and we've established a new board with two experienced local non-executives to provide local support for the management. MASS remained the largest single contributor to the Group's profit, though it saw some competition from MCL and SEA this year. MASS's performance fell behind last year's with customer-driven delays on some large existing contracts.
Keith Norton has taken over as Managing Director and is focusing on improving business development and restoring MASS to a growth path. In sensors and effectors, ELAC and SEA both contributed strongly to revenue growth. ELAC made good progress on its large contract to supply submarine sonars to the Italian Navy as we approach the critical delivery phase. At SEA, we saw record levels of revenue and profit despite some problem projects that had an impact on margins. SEA announced the sale of its transport business at the beginning of the current financial year, a strategic move to enable the management to focus on the core defense market. Chess had a more challenging year. It saw good growth in orders with strong demand for its portfolio of highly regarded products.
However, we saw a recurrence of operational and delivery challenges that had a significant impact on profitability. We will be working closely with the business to overcome these this year. I've mentioned that order intake was strong. This slide shows what that means in terms of future revenue. At over GBP 616 million, Cohort's year-end order book is the strongest we've ever announced. It includes nearly GBP 230 million for delivery this year and almost GBP 150 million for next year. That's the result of order intake in the year well north of a quarter of a billion pounds, supplemented by the strong order book we acquired with EM Solutions. The Royal Navy order for Ancilla at over GBP 135 million made a big contribution to the previous year's order intake. If we put that to one side, we did even better in 2024-2025.
As I mentioned earlier, since the year-end, the order book has continued to grow, and we now have 85% revenue cover for the year. The larger part of our order book still sits with the sensors and effectors division. SEA makes a very strong contribution to this number. ELAC and Chess also add significantly to the total. Since last year, we've seen almost a doubling of the order book at communications and intelligence. The acquisition of EM Solutions was the major factor in that improvement, but EID also made a big contribution. Just for comparison purposes, the chart on the right shows the shape of the order book runoff last year. What you can see is that this year it's maintained its shape in broad terms but has grown substantially, particularly in the current and next years. To summarize then, it's been another record year in terms of performance.
That reflects both the growing demand picture and the agility and innovation that our business model is designed to optimize. As a result of our performance and our prospects, the board has felt confident to increase the dividend by 10% once again. We've grown the dividend every year since our IPO in 2006. The results I've presented today already show some of the potential that arises from the EM Solutions acquisition. We expect the benefits of its strong order book and opportunity pipeline, together with the market access that it brings, to be even more visible this year. We retain our strong balance sheet and an excellent relationship with our banks. That gives us the resource we need to invest in new technology, greater production capacity, and when opportunities arise, carefully targeted acquisitions.
Finally, we've once again achieved a record order book, and we see an excellent pipeline of further opportunities ahead. The markets we're operating in are growing, and we expect to see those higher levels of spending maintained in the longer term. Achieving a book-to-bill ratio greater than one, once again, is the best quantitative marker for future growth. We maintain our revenue and profit growth expectations for the year and expect our EPS to be a little better. Beyond that, we believe the combination of growing demand and our market position allows us to target further improvements in performance. I hope what you've heard today explains that view. In closing, I want to take the opportunity to mention the great contribution to our success made by our management teams and employees.
We are very much a people business, and it is their expertise, dynamism, practicality, and integrity that propel us forward. It's thanks to them that we've seen another step towards our exciting long-term future as a major independent UK Defense Technology Group offering world-class systems to domestic and export customers alike. Our strategy continues to be to generate growth both organically and through acquisitions while paying a dividend that reflects our successful financial performance. We believe this offers the best long-term returns for investors while creating high-value employment and enhancing the security of the UK and its allies. Thank you.