Serco reports rise in revenue and profits despite Covid challenges
Serco has revealed its overall revenues increased by £109m to £4.53bn in 2022, despite a £480m drop in income from work surrounding Covid-19.
The company also revealed that underlying trading profit increased by 4 per cent to £237m, a margin of 5.2 per cent.
It said its performance of international portfolio strong; three-quarters of Group UTP derived from outside the UK.
The company, which runs leisure centres in Shropshire and bins in Sandwell, said its strategy remains unchanged with execution focused on three value drivers – customers, colleagues and capabilities, to support growth across all divisions.
Mark Irwin, Serco Group Chief Executive, said: "I am immensely proud of the achievements of all my Serco colleagues around the world during 2022 in another year of profound global challenges as we faced war in Europe; inflation at levels not seen for a generation; labour shortages; the lingering effects of Covid, and the manifestation of climate change bringing risk to lives and livelihoods.
"Against this very difficult backdrop Serco has delivered another year of strong operational and financial performance, growing revenues and profits despite Covid work coming to an end.
"Between 2019 – the last year without any Covid-related work – and 2022, we have increased revenue by 40 per cent and almost doubled Underlying Trading Profit from £120m to £237m.
"As well as a strong and consistent financial performance, we move out of the Covid period, with a business that has stronger customer relationships, improved geographic diversity, more resilience, and greater opportunities focused on impacting a better future for people, place, and planet."
He added: "Our results for 2022 continue a track record of strong performance over recent years which has enabled us to deliver on all the pillars of our capital allocation strategy: investing in the business to support growth and efficiency; growing returns to shareholders by increasing dividends and executing share buybacks; making value-adding acquisitions.
"As we move to the next stage of our mission to partner with governments to impact a better future, we remain grateful to our customers for their trust, to our colleagues for their dedication and commitment, and to our shareholders for their confidence and support."
