Outsourcing firm Serco updates the market on third quarter trading and has a hard act to follow after sector peer Capita's upbeat statement on Tuerday.
At the halfway point of the year, Serco announced a 2% like-for-like decline in revenue but said this should turn round in the second half to an 8% improvement.
Consensus forecasts require an additional £34m organic operating profits increase in the second half (H2), Peel Hunt notes. "We can see £27m of the uplift leaving an additional £7m of profits to be delivered in H2 - a potential shortfall of up to 4%," the broker said,
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"While any profit short fall in 2012 is likely to be small, the delivery of H2
expectations is vital in regard to investor confidence in the ability of Serco to achieve the acceleration in organic revenue growth rates anticipated by analyst forecasts from H2 2012 onwards," suggested Peel Hunt's Christopher Bamberry.
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