Outsourcer Mitie topped £1 billion in half-year sales for the first time after starting its largest- ever contract with state-backed banking group Lloyds.
The Bristol-based company, which has a 63,000-strong workforce providing services from office cleaning to airport baggage screening, expects growth will accelerate further in the current half- year as cash-strapped companies continue to outsource services.
Despite the 5.6% rise in revenues to £1.03bn for the six months to September 30, Mitie's pre-tax profits fell 13% to £37.7 million after it incurred £4.8m in restructuring and redundancy costs, including through scaling back activities in some divisions.
The cost of its recent acquisition of home-care services provider Enara for £110.8m also suppressed the overall result, but excluding the one-off items profits were 2% higher at £48.8m.
Chief executive Ruby McGregor-Smith said new and expanded contracts, coupled with the acquisition of Enara, will help push total revenues growth higher in the second half. She said: "This has been a positive start to the year for Mitie."
The group's £775m five-year deal with Lloyds has seen it deploy more than 7000 Mitie staff to more than 3000 locations, where work in roles in catering, reception, engineering maintenance, cleaning, security, and waste and office space management.
Other work includes a £100m deal to provide integrated facilities management for broadcaster BSkyB and a £30m front-of-house services deal with Royal Bank of Scotland. The group provides mechanical and engineering installation services for the House of Commons.
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