By Aby Jose Koilparambil
(Reuters) -British outsourcing group Capita on Friday forecast annual adjusted revenue will decline by low to mid-single digit percentage, partly hurt by its plan to move away from smaller-margin contracts, sending its shares sharply lower.
Shares in the company fell as much as 11% in early trading, and the stock was the top percentage loser on the FTSE Small Cap index.
Capita CEO Adolfo Hernandez, who took over the role in January, told Reuters that there is now a greater focus to chase revenue that creates an appropriate margin and return.
“Also, there are a couple of contracts where we had originally expected them to go live in terms of project execution in 2024, but those are now likely to be later on in the year or early into 2025,” Hernandez said.
The company posted a half-year pre-tax profit of 60 million pounds ($76.3 million), compared with a loss of 67.9 million pounds a year ago, while its adjusted operating margin improved to 4.5% from 3.1%, mainly helped by a cost reduction programme which started in 2023.
Capita had earlier this year unveiled plans to focus on its core segments of public services, contact centres and pension solutions businesses and cost-cutting steps worth about 100 million pounds in a bid to improve financial performance and cash generation.
($1 = 0.7865 pounds)
(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
