Covid contracts help Mitie revenues double to £930m

The outsourcing group Mitie has said it is confident of meeting its annual targets as clients reopen offices and first-quarter revenue more than doubled thanks to Covid-19 contracts and its Interserve acquisition.

Shares in the company, which provides engineering, security and cleaning services, rose 6 per cent after Mitie reported a 104 per cent jump in revenues, including those from its joint ventures, to £930 million for the quarter ended June 30.

The London-based company has been providing security services in virus quarantine hotels and helping the government to roll out Covid-19 testing sites. Revenue from the contracts came in at £110 million in the quarter.

Christopher Bamberry, analyst at Peel Hunt, said: “We maintain our forecasts [for Mitie] for now but believe there is upside potential depending on how Covid-related work unfolds over the year.”

Although its first quarter was mainly boosted by work related to Covid-19, Mitie said that it was confident of its full-year performance as the economy gradually recovers from the pandemic, and as it had recently won “high- quality” contracts.

The company, whose customers include Ikea, Vodafone and the Bank of England, booked new contracts and renewals of up to £1.4 billion in the quarter.

Mitie said that its technical services division, which provides building maintenance and engineering services, may not fully recover to pre-pandemic levels this fiscal year as major customers included pandemic-hit airports and office-based businesses.

Shares in Mitie closed up 4p, or 6.2 per cent, at 66½p.