Capita wins contract to manage primary school tests, sells ParkingEye
Capita has been awarded a contract by the UK Department for Education's testing arm to manage all primary school national curriculum assessment tests in England, and separately has sold its parking management business for £235m.
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The six-year contract with the Standards and Testing Agency to provide administration, processing and support, will cover the 2020 to 2024 test cycles and is worth approximately £109m.
Following a phased implementation from September 2018, Capita's "enhanced digital solution" will from September 2019 provide 16,000 schools and 4,000 test markers with a new secure access portal which will allow them to review the status of the test process, obtain results and update and download records in one place.
Jon Lewis, chief executive of Capita, said, "Capita is an established and experienced partner to the education sector and this contract further reinforces our strategy. We look forward to using our technology and service management capabilities to identify and deliver efficiencies and improvements ensuring both value for money and a positive experience for schools across England."
In a separate announcement, Capita revealed that it had reached an agreement to sell its parking management business, ParkingEye, to a vehicle owned by Macquarie and funds advised by MML Capital Partners for a cash consideration of £235m.
ParkingEye's underlying revenue and operating profit came to £40m and £14m respectively in the year to 31 December 2017 and the business had gross assets of £22m.
Capita said the transaction was in line with its strategy of simplifying the business, focusing on growth markets and disposing of non-core businesses, and that cash proceeds from the sale would be used to reduce net debt.
Lewis said, "This transaction marks a further step in executing the strategy announced in April aimed at simplifying and strengthening the business to deliver future success."
"Together with the four disposals already completed this year, we now expect to raise more than £400m from non-core disposals in 2018, well ahead of our target of £300m," he concluded.
As of 0840 BST, Capita shares had grown 3.32% to 166.50p.