VT Group is closing in on two significant military service contracts and hopes to become preferred bidder on a waste management private finance bid in Wakefield that it said on Tuesday could double its order book by the end of the financial year in March.

By the end of September, the group, which is focused on shipbuilding and defence services group, had lifted its order book by £200m to £3.7bn compared with the interim period last year, thanks to a £150m shipbuilding deal for Trinidad and Tobago and regular contracts of up to £50m.