6th Mar 2020 17:46
(Alliance News) - Capita PLC on Friday disclosed a number of director dealings, including by Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Lewis.
Lewis bought 50,000 shares at 77.1 pence each for GBP38,550‬ on Thursday, Chief Corporate Development Officer Rupert Green bought 36,000 shares at 63.0527p for GBP22,699 on Friday, and Chief General Counsel Claire Chapman paid 72p per share for 13,910 shares in a GBP10,015 deal on Friday.
Shares in Capita closed down 11% at 68.96p in London on Friday.
None of the three buyers' stakes in the outsourcing firm were disclosed after the deals.
Capita - which has contracts such as recruitment for the British Army as well as with bodies such as the NHS and the UK Home Office - made a slew of profit warnings during 2018 and secured an emergency rescue rights issue worth GBP700 million the same year.
Then, in 2019, Capita said the reduction in revenue was slowing, with second half revenue rising in four out of its six divisions year-on-year. The order book at the end of 2019 was GBP6.72 billion, down 5.4% on the same date a year prior.
London-headquartered Capita's 2019 revenue declined by 6.1% to GBP3.68 billion, compared to a 7.3% yearly decline in 2018. It swung to a pretax loss of GBP62.6 million in 2019 following a GBP272.6 million pretax profit in 2018. The loss came after Capita booked a more than GBP300 million gain on a disposal in 2018.
"Transforming an organisation of Capita's size is a complex challenge; there remains more to do and it is requiring more investment than we had expected in 2018," Lewis explained on Thursday.
This meant progress had yet to translate into improved financial performance. Revenue and profit met expectations in 2019, but Capita warned on 2020 cash flow.
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
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