Bottom Line: New broom Soames has a lot to sweep up May 1, 2014 THERE’S nothing like a profit warning and an emergency cash call to kick off your tenure as chief executive of one of the FTSE 250’s most beleaguered groups. That’s what Serco boss Rupert Soames – poached from Aggreko in a major coup for the support services firm – faced yesterday on his first day in [...]
Serco seeks emergency cash as finance chief makes exit April 30, 2014 SERVICES giant Serco announced its intention to raise around £170m yesterday, as Andrew Jenner bows out as the group’s chief financial officer (CFO). The group will place nearly 50m more shares to raise the cash, just shy of 10 per of the firm’s existing share capital. Jenner has been the group’s CFO for 12 years, and [...]
Serco slides as market expects it to warn on 20pc lower profit April 29, 2014 SERCO’S shares plummeted almost 20 per cent yesterday morning and closed 15 per cent lower, after the struggling outsourcer warned a downgrade to profit forecasts and a rights issue may be on the cards. The scandal-tainted FTSE 250 company did not give further details, but analysts at Liberum and Investec forecast a 20 per cent [...]
Serco expected to warn on 20 per cent lower profits April 29, 2014 Serco’s shares plummeted almost 20 per cent this morning and have closed over 15 per cent lower, after the struggling outsourcer warned a downgrade to profit forecasts and a possible rights issue may be on the cards. Former Aggreko boss Rupert Soames takes over as Serco’s chief executive on Thursday, but the appointment of this [...]
Serco flags up profit warning and cash call April 28, 2014 SERCO warned yesterday that it may need to downgrade its profit forecasts and tap investors for cash through a rights issue, after a worse-than-expected performance this year. The FTSE 100 outsourcing firm, which settled claims it had overcharged the government on a prisoner-tagging contract last year, had already warned in January that profits would fall [...]
Serco extends Northern Rail deal March 28, 2014 Support services firm Serco will run the Northern Rail franchise with its partner Abellio for an extra 22 months, generating £520m for the London-listed firm. The deal, which runs until February 2016, will keep the companies in place on the Northern routes until a full franchise competition is run. The current contract was due to [...]
What you need to know before the open March 27, 2014 A lower open’s expected for European markets this morning, following the slightly surprising selloff seen in US markets yesterday. It’s unclear quite how the selloff came about, but President Obama’s criticisms of Russia’s actions in Crimea probably didn’t help. Meanwhile, weak underlying durable goods numbers yesterday point to still-listless demand on the US consumer front. [...]
The government’s wasting £50m a year on technology that doesn’t work March 14, 2014 The founder of electronic tagging company Buddi, Sara Murray, has said this morning that the government’s "wasting £50m a year by buying old technology from Serco and G4S that doesn't work." Her words follow those of Margaret Hodge, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, who said the government “urgently needs to get its house in [...]
MoD to name firm to run its military estate March 10, 2014 THE MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) yesterday said that it is close to announcing a preferred bidder for a £400m contract to support the management of its military estate. Three consortiums are bidding for the defence infrastructure organisation contract. One is led by beleaguered outsourcing firm Serco, which recently had a ban lifted on winning new [...]
Aggreko soars as investors get £200m payout March 6, 2014 AGGREKO delighted investors yesterday with in-line results, a £200m special dividend and a better-than-expected outlook for 2014. The FTSE 100 temporary power provider’s shares soared around nine per cent in early trading, before settling later in the day and closing 3.5 per cent higher. “After nine consecutive years of growth, 2013 proved to be a [...]