Capita seals sextet of deals in first quarter

Outsourcing group Capita has secured six new major deals worth a total of 660m pounds since the start of the year.

The FTSE 100 group, on the day of its annual general meeting, said it had made good financial progress in the first 19 weeks of the year and that it was "well placed" to grow in line with expectations over the full year.

Since the beginning of 2013 Capita has acquired seven companies for a total consideration of £165m, including IT outsourcer Northgate Managed Services, debt collector iQor, training outsourcers Knowledgepool and G2G3.

The group won new contracts with Carphone Warehouse and the University of Strathclyde and extended an existing training deal with the Cabinet Office to form a joint venture with the government department, as was announced in April.

Capita has taken on Carphone Warehouse's non-store customer services duties for the next ten years in a deal worth around £160m in total, while the Cabinet Office agreement is expected to generate revenue of £40m initially and anticipated to triple by the tenth year of the joint venture.

The contract win to provide computer technology for the University of Strathclyde is a first in the higher education sector, which the company described as having "exciting potential".

No new update was given on the major-bid pipeline since the company's annual results statement in February, when the figure stood at £5.2bn.

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