Gamble of the week: A healthy British supplier

While other UK suppliers have gone under, this stock is riding high on a wave of new orders. A buy for the brave, says Paul Hill.

The fortunes of UK suppliers to the public sector vary hugely. The likes of Rok and Connaught have hit the corporate graveyard, and Mouchel is in bad shape. By contrast, support services and construction group Interserve (LSE:IRV)is in rude health.

Last Tuesday, the firm released a pre-close trading statement saying that it had bagged £1bn of new orders in the first half of the year, as it seeks to become one of the biggest providers of government services. New work was won from the Ministry of Justice, Alliance Boots, Sainsbury's, and West Yorkshire Police, from whom a £150m contract was secured. This all comes despite the challenging backdrop of sticky inflation and government cutbacks.

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Paul gained a degree in electrical engineering and went on to qualify as a chartered management accountant. He has extensive corporate finance and investment experience and is a member of the Securities Institute.

Over the past 16 years Paul has held top-level financial management and M&A roles for blue-chip companies such as O2, GKN and Unilever. He is now director of his own capital investment and consultancy firm, PMH Capital Limited.

Paul is an expert at analysing companies in new, fast-growing markets, and is an extremely shrewd stock-picker.