- Outsourcer Serco Group forecast on Wednesday a more than 50% jump in first-half profit, bolstered mainly by its COVID-19 services for the UK government although it warned that revenue from those services would drop in the second half.
The company, which has been supporting the British government's COVID-19 test-and-trace programme by providing services like test site operations, cleaning, security and contact tracing, expects underlying trading profit to come in between 120 million and 125 million pounds ($173.05 million).
The company said profit would also get a boost from recent acquisitions, growth in contracts such as its work in the justice and immigration sector, and a recovery in travel and leisure demand.
Serco earlier this month raised its 2021 profit outlook by 15 million pounds to about 200 million pounds, due in part to the coronavirus services it has been providing. It kept that outlook unchanged on Wednesday.
The company, which focusses on public sector services, said about 340 million pounds of its half yearly revenue, seen at around 2.2 billion pounds, are expected to be related to its COVID-19 work, compared with 80 million pounds a year earlier.
($1 = 0.7223 pounds)
