Capita share price falls after investors take fright at 50 per cent pre-tax profit slump
Shares in professional services firm Capita, one of the country's major outsourcing companies, have slumped by more than five per cent this morning after a mixed set of results spooked investors.
Capita revealed that profit before tax at the business dropped to £112.1m, from £292.4m in 2014 after the business took hits from business exits and impairment charges.
Capita, which runs various services from the Ministry of Defence pension scheme to police radio systems, has secured contracts with an aggregate value of £251m in the year to date, however the bid pipeline currently stands at almost half a billion pounds lower than in February 2015 at £4.7bn.
This fall was offset by a seven per cent rise in underlying full year revenue to £4.67bn, and an 11 per cent increase in underlying operating profit to £639m.
A dividend hike of 9 per cent to 31.7p was not enough to reassure share holders who've bailed out of the stock, making it the biggest loser on the FTSE 100 this morning.
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The group ended the period with net debt of £1.83bn, up from £1.49bn in the year before.
Capita announced alongside the results that chairman, Martin Bolland will step down at the end of the year after seven years in the role.