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Hedge funds are anticipating further falls in the share price of troubled outsourcing firm Mitie.

Marshall Wace, Old Mutual and Henderson Global Investors are among the investors to have disclosed short positions on the company.

Read more: Mitie flogs its healthcare business for just £2

Markit data, reported on by the Sunday Times, shows the percentage of Mitie shares on loan, indicative of the level of bets on share price falls, reached 18.4 per cent last week.

ShortTracker puts the figure at closer to 15 per cent, but both datasets identify Mitie as the fourth most-shorted stock in London.

It has been a troubling start to 2017 for Mitie. In January, the company’s new chief executive Phil Bentley ordered KPMG to conduct an external review of its accounts.

Read more: Mighty fall for Mitie as share price dives after it warns on profits again

Also in January, the firm issued its third profit warning in four months. The firm’s share price, 204p on Friday, is down nine per cent since the beginning of the year and 27 per cent on this point last year.

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