Strong increases in sales and profits 
- Turnover up 11.3% to £804.5m
- Profit before tax – pre-goodwill up 16.5% to £36.5m
- Earnings per share – pre-goodwill up 18.2% to 6.09p

Further improved cash performance
- First half-year free cash generation of £23.5m (2003: £14.2m)
- Group EBITDA to cash conversion of 70% (2003: 58%)

High visibility of future earnings
- Forward order book £10.3bn at 30 June 2004, plus a further £2.6bn at preferred bidder stage 
- Planned 2004 turnover 99% already secured, plus 87% of 2005 and 75% of 2006

Strong organic growth
- 66% of the increase in turnover came from growing the base of existing contracts 
- 90% success rate on rebids maintained, including a radar maintenance contract at RAF Fylingdales and an aeronautical services contract in Abu Dhabi
- New contracts signed valued at £0.7bn in the period

Substantial range of future opportunities
- Bids worth £5.3bn submitted and under evaluation 
- Over £16bn of further potential opportunities identified

Note: EBITDA is earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and goodwill amortisation. Free cash flow is reconciled in Section 3 of the finance review.

Kevin Beeston, Executive Chairman, said: 

“Our commitment to high quality services coupled with increasing opportunities worldwide ensures that Serco is well placed to continue growing successfully. Our organic growth is strong and we are winning important new business. Global trends are in our favour. Governments are spending more on public services, while also seeking efficiency gains, and they are increasingly likely to outsource the provision of these services. They are also looking for more sophisticated solutions where value for money is greater and quality counts – and it is here that Serco excels.”

• News announcement (PDF)
• Interim Results Presentation 2004 - Full Page(PDF)(1.1Mb)
• Interim Results Presentation 2004 - 2 Page(PDF)(383Kb)
• Webcast