Trading was a “little better than expected”, but remained depressed at embattled outsourcer Serco (LON:SRP).
The company, which in 2013 repaid £64mln following the scandal in which it overcharged for tagging former prisoners, said its revenues fell £200mln to just shy of £1.8bn in the first half. It made a £25mln operating loss.
Worryingly, Serco revealed UK central government business was down 28%.
During the period the company lost the contracts to run the Docklands Light Railway in London’s East End and the Colnbrook immigration removal centre near Heathrow.
It has been a tumultuous two years for Serco, which is now under the management of company doctor Rupert Soames and which earlier this year required a £550mln rights issue to get it on a sounder financial footing.
The performance of the shares in the year to date reveal a business in transition. The stock is off 62% in last 12 months.
Investors might quibble, but Soames called the interim results a “respectable start to what will be a long, and no doubt occasionally bumpy, road to recovery”.
“In the period we completed some essential first steps, most notably raising the equity and refinancing our debt which has given us much a stronger balance sheet,” he added.