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UK outsourcing company delivering public services — justice, defense, healthcare, transport — for governments globally.
UK outsourcing company delivering public services — justice, defense, healthcare, transport — for governments globally.
Is paid by governments to run services they used to run themselves, on multi-year contracts that mix fixed fees with performance payments, so winning and renewing contracts, and pricing them correctly, decides results. The UK, the US (mainly defence work such as Navy vessel support) and Asia-Pacific are its main sources.
In one line: A UK government-services outsourcer, akin to a smaller Leidos.
Moat: narrow (regulatory licence, installed base, scale). Long-term, security-cleared government contracts create high switching costs.
Headquarters: Hook, UK · Founded: 1929 · Employees: 48,000
Size Serco (SRP.L) is a United Kingdom Industrials company (Miscellaneous Commercial Services) with a market value of $3.60B, the 117th largest of 363 United Kingdom companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at £280.80 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 5.1%, against +7.6% for the median peer and +3.6% for the United Kingdom market (cap-weighted) — 11th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 1.2% over the last twelve months (peer median +15.3%); the operating margin is 5.0% (peer median 11.0%).
Valuation It trades at 14.9× forward earnings against a peer median of 13.9× (9th most expensive of 19).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 2% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +5%, so the hurdle is -3 pp: the price already allows for a slowdown.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 3.3 points above its cost of capital (8.4% WACC).
Next results Next results expected around 4 Mar 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | £4.99B | £4.95B | £4.87B | £4.91B | £4.71B |
| Revenue growth | — | +2% | -1% | +4% | — |
| Gross profit | £517M | £561M | £573M | £505M | £647M |
| EBITDA | £478M | £516M | £500M | £404M | £551M |
| Net income | £153M | £146M | £44.2M | £202M | £155M |
| Free cash flow | £388M | £406M | £395M | £372M | £299M |
| Capital expenditure | £31.5M | £33.2M | £34.4M | £24.7M | £19.4M |
| Total debt | n/a | £909M | £806M | £660M | £709M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serco SRP.L | $3.60B | +5% | +1% | 5% | 14.9× | 1.9% |
| MITIE MTO.L | $3.56B | +23% | +11% | 3% | 14.2× | 14.1% |
| Leidos LDOS | $16.2B | +2% | +3% | 12% | 11.4× | -6.4% |
| Capita CPI.L | $419M | -16% | -16% | 5% | 21.2× | n/a |
| Babcock International BAB.L | $6.60B | 0% | +7% | 6% | 15.4× | 13.2% |
| MAXIMUS MMS | $3.43B | +2% | -3% | 11% | 7.9× | -8.5% |
| Amentum AMTM | $5.20B | -13% | +11% | 4% | 8.4× | 1.7% |
| KBR KBR | $4.69B | +14% | -3% | 9% | 9.5× | -8.7% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | SRP.L | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +11.5% | -0.2% | 4th highest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +5.1% | +7.6% | 11th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -13.8% | -16.0% | 10th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +1.2% | +15.3% | 6th lowest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 5.0% | 11.0% | 5th lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 14.9× | 13.9× | 9th most expensive of 19 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 1.9% | -0.7% | 8th most demanding of 17 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +4.9% | +10.9% | 4th lowest of 17 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | -3.0 pp | -10.4 pp | 4th most demanding of 17 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +3.3 pp | +4.3 pp | 8th lowest of 18 |
| EV / EBITDA | 7.1× | 8.7× | 6th cheapest of 15 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.5× | 1.1× | 7th most indebted of 15 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serco SRP.L | United Kingdom | $3.60B | +5% | +1% | 5% | 14.9× | 1.9% | +4.9% |
| MITIE MTO.L | United Kingdom | $3.56B | +23% | +11% | 3% | 14.2× | 14.1% | +17.6% |
| GEO GEO | United States | $3.66B | +28% | +15% | 12% | 13.5× | 6.8% | +2.3% |
| Loomis LOOMIS.ST | Sweden | $3.46B | +12% | +1% | 11% | 12.6× | -9.1% | +9.7% |
| MAXIMUS MMS | United States | $3.43B | +2% | -3% | 11% | 7.9× | -8.5% | +9.4% |
| Alsok 2331.T | Japan | $3.79B | -1% | +7% | 8% | 13.7× | -6.0% | +4.9% |
| Shenzhen Fortune Trend Technology 688318.SS | China | $3.36B | -21% | -3% | 56% | 69.5× | n/a | n/a |
| Centre Testing International 300012.SZ | China | $3.96B | -5% | +15% | 16% | 22.1× | 14.2% | +13.2% |
| PhysicsWallah PWL.NS | India | $4.00B | +18% | +35% | 1% | 100.9× | n/a | n/a |
| SAI Life Sciences SAILIFE.NS | India | $4.02B | +64% | +27% | 21% | 89.2× | n/a | n/a |
| East Buy 1797.HK | Hong Kong | $4.11B | +22% | +34% | 11% | 38.5× | 18.4% | +54.3% |
| Jianshe Industry Group (Yunnan) 002265.SZ | China | $3.12B | -11% | +42% | 5% | n/a | 26.3% | +47.9% |
| ABM Industries ABM | United States | $3.10B | +32% | +6% | 5% | 12.5× | -2.0% | +7.9% |
| JHT Design 603061.SS | China | $3.07B | -8% | +93% | 34% | n/a | 43.9% | +30.4% |
| TriNet TNET | United States | $3.05B | +56% | -4% | 6% | 15.1× | -3.3% | +4.4% |
| Jiangsu Boqian New Materials Stock 605376.SS | China | $2.94B | -43% | +76% | 20% | 38.8× | n/a | n/a |
| Inventurus Knowledge Solutions IKS.NS | India | $2.94B | -2% | +20% | 31% | 31.8× | 21.2% | +45.8% |
| Brink's BCO | United States | $4.54B | +3% | +7% | 10% | 11.8× | 0.1% | +7.3% |
| CoreCivic CXW | United States | $2.84B | +41% | +24% | 10% | 12.1× | -1.6% | +3.0% |
| Teleperformance TEP.PA | France | $4.60B | +3% | -3% | 10% | 5.0× | -10.2% | +12.2% |
| Dizal Pharmaceutical 688192.SS | China | $4.68B | +18% | +720% | 69% | 9.5× | -8.4% | +95.9% |