Mitie shares surge on profit upgrade, £50m buyback

Mitie shares soared on Monday as the cleaning-to-security services outsourcer upgraded its annual profit forecast and launched an extra £50m share buyback on the back of record revenues.

Operating profits are now expected to rise by 23% to at least £200m compared with £162m a year earlier and a January forecast of at least £190m.

Revenue was expected to jump 11% to £4.5bn after a particularly strong final three months of 2023 where sales were up 10%. Shares in the company were up more than 7% in morning trade against a falling London market.

“We have continued to see sustained demand from our clients for transformational projects across their estates, driven by macro trends including decarbonisation, the modernisation of the built environment, and changes in the regulatory landscape,” the company said in a trading update.

Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter said the group had been making "significant strides" in keeping inflationary costs under control and turning its large pipeline of opportunities into contracts wins, with the UK government a key customer.

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com