By Li-mei Hoang
LONDON (Reuters) - British outsourcing group Capita posted an 11 percent rise in first-half organic revenue, helped by 1.3 billion pounds of major contract wins that prompted its CEO to deliver an upbeat assessment of its full-year prospects.
Chief Executive Andy Parker said he is confident the company will be able to deliver full-year revenue growth of at least 8 percent and that the outlook for the outsourcing market remains buoyant.
"We are confident it's going to be at least 8 percent," he said after Wednesday's results announcement, adding that the company had seen strong trading since the second half of 2012.
Pretax profit rose 16 percent to 238 million pounds in the first half and the group's bid pipeline - representing maximum potential orders from new business pitches - stood at a record 5.7 billion pounds.
Capita, one of Britain's leading outsourcing companies, has benefited as central and local government and private sector companies have outsourced work to cut costs in the face of tighter budgets. It has also avoided the scandals over the private provision of public services that have damaged rivals G4S and Serco.
Shares in Capita were up 2.7 percent by 0740 GMT, making it the biggest riser on the blue-chip FTSE 100 index.
"Capita's half-year numbers released this morning show a great start to Andy Parker's reign as CEO," Whitman Howard analyst Stephen Rawlinson said.
"Revenue is up 13.9 percent to 2.1 billion pounds, 11 percent organic growth we are told, and the margins are a tad higher with operating profit up 14.7 percent to 260 million," he said.
We turned buyers on Capita six months ago and have no reason to alter that view."
(Editing by Kate Holton and David Goodman)