Business
Unscheduled Q3 Trading Statement
Unscheduled Q3 Trading Statement.
About this update from Serco Group Plc
RNS Number : 2689C Serco Group PLC 16 October 2020 16 October 2020 Serco Group plc LEI: 549300PT2CIHYN5GWJ21 Strong Q3 trading across all regions worldwide leads to upgrade of guidance for 2020 Serco Group plc ('Serco' or 'the Group'), the international provider of services to governments, today provides an unscheduled update on the outlook for trading in 2020. Trading: we have achieved strong revenue growth in the third quarter and this, in conjunction with good cost control, means we are upgrading our full year revenue guidance to around £3.9bn and Underlying Trading Profit (UTP) to £160m-£165m; this would represent organic growth in revenues of around 15%, growth in UTP of over 30%, and a UTP margin of just above 4%. The range of outcomes around these numbers, up or down, is wider than would normally be the case at this time of year as on some contracts customers are adjusting their requirements week-by-week in response to the challenges of Covid-19. All of our regions worldwide are performing better than we expected and have increased their forecasts for 2020. In both Group and in the divisions, effective cost control and the ability of our systems to respond efficiently to increased demand has helped increase margins. In the US, we have seen strong performances across a number of contracts, including our Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) contract, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) contract and the Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (ATFP) framework contract for US Naval Facilities. In the UK, we have been awarded extensions to our contracts to provide test sites and call handlers for NHS Test & Trace, which is an indication of our customer's satisfaction with the quality of work we have delivered. We have also seen increases in the number of asylum seekers we are looking after on behalf of the Home Office, and our new Prisoner Escorting contract has been successfully mobilised. We have now secured an extension to the Emergency Measures Agreement on the Caledonian Sleepers to the end of the year. In Australia, restrictions on movement as a result of Covid-19 has meant additional work for both our immigration services and our Citizens Services businesses. In the Middle East, there has been an increase in project-related wo...