Pre Close Trading Update
Date : 27 June 2007
Ahead of the end of its financial half year on 30 June 2007 and its pre-close meetings with analysts, Serco Group plc (Serco) today releases the following update on current trading:
Serco has continued to win significant amounts of new business and we remain confident of performing in line with expectations for the year. So far in 2007 we have signed or been appointed preferred bidder for contracts valued at around £2.2bn.
Since our AGM update on 4 May 2007, we have signed and commenced a five-year, £50m contract with the Ministry of Defence to provide services at the UK Armed Forces estate facilities in Gibraltar. We have also signed and begun contracts to provide operational management to United Arab Emirates University, valued at around £70m over ten years, and to deliver property management and support services to State Street Bank, valued at around £50m over five years.
These and other wins this year give us strong momentum going into the second half of the year and will accelerate our revenue growth, which as expected should be around 9% in the first half, underpinning our confidence of delivering double-digit growth for the full year.
In addition to these wins, we signed a contract to provide support services to the new NHS Forth Valley Acute Hospital, for which we were appointed preferred bidder in 2006. The contract, which will begin in mid-2009, is valued at around £450m over 30 years.
Serco was also appointed preferred bidder to operate and maintain the Dubai Metro. The contract is valued at more than £400m over 12.5 years, with operations due to commence in September 2009. And the Royal Navy appointed Serco as preferred bidder for a ten-year, £70m contract to provide aviation, engineering and aircraft support services.
Serco's markets continue to grow and our combination of public service ethos and commercial know-how means we are ideally positioned to support our customers. At the same time, our ongoing focus on managing our contract portfolio, bidding selectively and enhancing efficiency is enabling us to build on the margin expansion we achieved last year. We remain confident of delivering double-digit growth for the foreseeable future and further increasing margins.
Serco will release its interim results on 30 August 2007.