Serco

Serco Group plc is a British outsourcing company based in Hook, Hampshire. It operates public and private transport and traffic control, aviation, military weapons, detention centres, prisons and schools on behalf of its customers. Serco has been involved in a variety of controversies having a history of problems, failures, fatal errors and overcharging.

It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. Serco operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and North America, but the majority of its turnover comes from the UK.

History

Serco was founded in 1929 as RCA Services Limited, a United Kingdom division of the Radio Corporation of America and initially provided services to the cinema industry. It changed its name to Serco in 1987 and has been a London Stock Exchange listed company since 1988.

On 29 December 2008, Serco acquired SI International.

In November 2014 its share price, which stood at 674p before the taxpayer scandal broke in 2013 collapsed to 218.7p, after four profit warnings. The new chief executive Rupert Soames sold off "scores of divisions". He said the company was suffering from ministers’ improved ability at driving a bargain, and claimed that “the Government has got much more adept at writing contracts and transferring risk to the private sector”. On 17th November 2014, it was announced that Alastair Lyons would resign from his position as chairman of Serco. Lyons referred to “operational mis-steps” for which he took “ultimate responsibility”, but said he had not been forced out.