Serco leaps after Soames ups profits

Long-suffering investors in Serco were today rewarded for sticking with the troubled outsourcer after it forecast profits ahead of expectations.

The firm has suffered a litany of scandals including charging the Government for tagging some criminals who were dead, imprisoned or non-existent.

It said underlying trading profit for 2016 is expected to reach at least £65 million. That figure is up on its existing forecast of about £50 million.

The shares rose 9.8p, more than 10%, to 101.3p in a boost to boss Rupert Soames’s turnaround plan.

Serco said it was helped after a number of contracts ran longer than it was banking on, including the Virginia transport and US Army transition assistance deals.