StockMarketWire.com
Capita launched a £701m rights issue to repair its balance sheet as losses continued to widen in the year to end of December.

The rights issue was said to form a key component of a transformation plan to 'provide Capita with a sustainable capital base to support its clients and operations.'

The proceeds of the rights issue will used to support the delivery of Capita's new strategy, support further investments in the business and reduce the firm's debt load to a target leverage ratio of between 1.0x and 2.0x adjusted net debt to adjusted EBITDA, Capita added.

'Capita is targeting annualised initial cost savings of £175m by the end of 2020. The successful implementation of the new strategy is expected to generate at least £200m of sustainable annual, post-tax free cash flow in 2020,' Capita said.

Capita's reported losses before tax widened to £513.1m from £89.8m a year ago, while underlying profit was up 43% to £383m.

Performance was impacted by £850.7m of specific non-underlying items, including £551.6m goodwill impairment and a number of other asset impairments and provisions, Capita said.

The firm said it continues to expect that its underlying pre-tax profits, before significant new contracts, restructuring costs and implementation costs of the strategy, will be between £270m and £300m for the year ending 31 December 2018.

Reported revenue decreased by 3.1% to £4,234.6m from £4,368.6m while underlying revenue decreased by 4.3% to £4,167.9m from £4,357.3m.

Underlying revenue on a like for like basis, excluding results from businesses exited in both years, decreased by 0.6% which included a 1.5% organic decline and 0.9% growth from acquisitions.

Net debt increased to £1,117.0m from £1,778.8m while adjusted net debt fell to £1,219.4m from £1,809.3m. Story provided by StockMarketWire.com

Ooo-er....Down 7% DYOR, Dividend scrapped, sp 150p, despite Fundraising of £700m and disposals of £400m ( but disposal is a zero-gain IMHO, since it reduces the ability to make profits.... otherwise why would anyone buy the Asset? ). New strategy and finance spending . . . no wonder the sp has taken a dive from ~£13 peak mid 2015 ( lowest sp this year May 2018=120p -DYOR ).
It doesn't look good as almost any hiccup will bash the sp - as I'm guessing many Institutions were buying for the regular dividend from managing Government Works, Etc.