Serco Share Discussion Threads

[rimmy2000] 25/10/2013 12:16

bought in this morning. Looking nice and comfortably in profit :)

[davethehorse] 25/10/2013 12:15

Serco CEO Chris Hyman has resigned!

[davethehorse] 24/10/2013 14:51

Seem to be bouncing back well the last couple of days, maybe bottom reached?

[pinemartin9] 18/10/2013 16:45

Wouldn't buy now - the chart looks horrible. Never catch a falling knife as they say. I can see this sub 500 p before too long...

[farmsted] 18/10/2013 08:59

Is now the time to buy as it seems to have bottomed

[osirisra] 07/10/2013 09:14

Well done to my mate Bill at the DLR. He's been thinking about retiring for a couple of years and cashed a bundle of previous sharesave shares during the peak up around 670. Pure chance and what a difference a couple of months makes! I hope I have his jammy touch when I'm retiring.
I know not really relevent but I thought it would be nice to post a good news, heart warming post during these down days for the current holders/sharesavers.
Osi'.

[rathkum] 07/10/2013 08:30

The share chart says it all. Not worth guessing where the bottom is.

[palwing32] 03/10/2013 08:06

Too many "skeletons in the cupboard" IMHO.

[miata] 27/9/2013 11:13

Not quite yet.

The SFO said on Thursday the Ministry of Justice had asked it to consider whether it should investigate Serco over the contracts.

[osirisra] 27/9/2013 08:57

Thought this would tank further this am. Sure I heard on the radio last night that the seriouos fraud office were taking the case forward????? They're talking about over charges by 10s of millions of pounds!

[bones] 11/9/2013 19:19

Serco out of the FTSE100 confirmed:

hxxp://www.ftse.com/tech_notices/2013/Q3/79040_20130911_FTSE_UK_Review.jsp

[palwing32] 11/9/2013 08:13

Reminds me of a house of cards...one puff of wind and it's likely to collapse.

I imagine there are quite a few more out there just ready to blow.

[bigbigdave] 08/9/2013 07:10

Serco risks bar from MoD contract

The scandal-hit outsourcer may be ejected from a bid to run £15bn arms budget

SERCO faces being excluded from a huge defence outsourcing deal after becoming caught up in two fraud investigations.

The FTSE 100 company is embroiled in two government probes into claims that it overcharged the Ministry of Justice for tagging criminals and falsified prisoner transfer documents.

The allegations have infuriated ministers and, in effect, left the outsourcer frozen out of bids for government work until the investigations are completed.

Serco is part of a consortium, led by CH2M Hill, the American engineering consultancy, that wants to run Defence, Equipment & Support (DE&S). This is the agency responsible for buying fighter jets, tanks and warships for the Ministry of Defence.

Last week Philip Dunne, the minister for defence equipment, support and technology, was asked in the Commons whether Serco was a suitable candidate to run the military procurement arm.

He replied: "It will be up to the consortium to decide whether it will be appropriate . . . to go forward in the competition with that company."

CH2M Hill has worked on projects such as the London Olympics, Crossrail and High Speed 2. It must now decide whether to risk sticking with Serco or to look for an alternative partner.

Industry sources said Dunne's response was a clear indication to the American contractor that it would need to consider ditching the British company to retain any chance of clinching the high-profile deal.

CH2M Hill declined to comment.

DE&S controls an annual budget of £15bn and has 15,000 staff, based mainly at Abbey Wood in Bristol. The ministry is keen to instil commercial discipline in the organisation, which has been accused of profligacy.

CH2M Hill is up against Bechtel, the American engineering and construction group, which is bidding with Britain's PwC and PA Consulting.

It would be a huge blow to Serco if it were dumped from the competition to manage the "GoCo" - government-owned, contractor-operated organisation. The teams will be invited to negotiate for the contract later this month and a preferred bidder is expected to be chosen in December.

Bernard Gray, chief of defence materiel at the MoD, last week told the Commons defence committee that either the chairman or chief executive of the GoCo would have to be British. The other position could, then, be filled by an executive from overseas.

Serco's shares closed last week at 554p, valuing the outsourcer at £2.8bn. It has withdrawn from the electronic monitoring contract, and Chris Hyman, chief executive, said he was "appalled" at the misreporting of prisoner transfer data by a small number of staff.

www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Companies/article1310726.ece

[osirisra] 06/9/2013 23:46

Dave, the old share save isn't looking too rosey at the mo is it?!At least with this scheme you can get back the dough you put in. Never thought I'd be seriously thinking that was going to be the best course of action.

[philanderer] 02/9/2013 11:38

On the watchlist.

Sharecast...

Serco Group: Jefferies reduces target price from 750p to 675p, while its buy recommendation is kept. UBS cuts target price from 615p to 580p and maintains a neutral rating.

[palwing32] 29/8/2013 17:36

brain smiley..... Endemic is how I would put it.

[major clanger] 29/8/2013 16:46

SRP downgraded by Cantor:

Hold from Buy - TP to 550p from 715p

More here:

hxxp://www.brokerforecasts.com/news/article/articleId/4658819

[brain smiley] 29/8/2013 11:58

If this corruption is group wide Serco is stuffed.Can't imagine it is though, but you just don't know.

[pkvidean] 29/8/2013 11:15

I suspect a lot of today's drop caused by FTSE100 tracker sellers exiting completely...next quarterly review not until 11 September but relegation now looks nailed on. Buyers should emerge approximately late next week for FTSE250 entry.

[davethehorse] 29/8/2013 11:02

Bad day at the office for SRP but to be expected with this sort of news, they will bounce back but short term obviously not the sort of news holders were wanting to say the least. A kick in the teeth for Serco staff holding company shares and Share Save schemers too. Grim share price today and a drop to FTSE250 looks on cards now despite the decent figures which in the long term make good reading, an opportunity for the brave bottom fishing soon...

[brain smiley] 29/8/2013 10:56

and would instititute a programme of change.

Serco reported a 10.5% rise in first half profits to £127.1m and said it was on track for the full year. But the prisoner escort contract and an audit which found Serco and rival G4S had charged for tagging criminals who were dead, in prison or never tagged in the first place has raised questions over the prospects of winning any future government contracts. Liberum Capital said:


The risk is the impact on Serco's broader relationship with government and the potential impact of greater transparency on margins.



Liberum's Joe Brent said the company was still confident on prison contracts, and the reveiw only related to central government projects and excluded joint ventures, rail and local authorities.


At Investec Gideon Adler said:


Serco has reported a decent set of interim results, though the rate of growth into the second half is subdued, and we remain concerned about the group's UK public sector revenue pipeline in the wake of the misreporting of data on its [prisoner escorting]. Though organic revenue momentum was ahead of expectations, margins have come under pressure from on-going bid costs, free cash flow is declining, and the rate of growth in the second half will be 'significantly' lower, with full year guidance unchanged. Sell.



Robin Speakman at Shore Capital said:


As we expected, Serco has delivered a good underlying performance for its first half period through to end June. The interim dividend has increased by 17% in line with the revised payout policy set at the Final results stage – a surprise to us, we felt the company might hold off on significant dividend increases until the dust settles on its UK government contract issues

Of course, with the UK government investigation running into Serco's contract performance, these results are overshadowed by other developments. Regardless of encouraging business performance, it will take time for investor and client confidence to recover at Serco.

[palwing13] 29/8/2013 09:34

undervaluedassets VERY!

[undervaluedassets] 29/8/2013 08:39

How rotten is this apple?

That is the question.

You have to query the culture that fosters such mal-practice and malfeasance.

Looks cheap but could get a lot cheaper.

[miata] 29/8/2013 08:26

Christopher Hyman, Group Chief Executive, said: "The strong financial performance over the first six months of 2013 has met expectations, our overall guidance for the full year is unchanged and the outlook remains positive.

Christopher Hyman, Group Chief Executive, said he was "appalled" last night after the discovery of allegedly fradulent behaviour by some Serco staff working on a prisoner transfer contact.

The firm said it will repay profits on the contract for transfers in London and East Anglia since 2011 - about £2m. It will also give up future profits on the contract, which due to run until 2018.