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* Q1 revenue excluding Interserve up 36%
* Says confident of H2 and FY as UK reopens
* Shares up 5% - top of FTSE 250
(Recasts, adds analyst comment, background)
By Yadarisa Shabong
July 27 (Reuters) - British outsourcer Mitie said on
Tuesday it was confident of its annual outlook as clients reopen
their offices and first-quarter revenue more than doubled thanks
to COVID-19 contracts and its Interserve acquisition.
Shares in the company, which provides engineering, security
and cleaning services, rose 5% after reporting a 104% jump in
revenue including those from its joint ventures to 930 million
pounds ($1.28 billion) for the quarter ended June 30.
The London-based company has been providing security
services in virus quarantine hotels and helping the government
roll out COVID-19 testing sites across Britain. Revenue from the
contracts came in at 110 million pounds in the quarter.
Britain on Monday expanded a programme of daily COVID-19
tests to reduce a wave of staff absences created by a high
number of new cases. Earlier this month, the country lifted most
of its pandemic restrictions.
"We maintain our forecasts (for Mitie) for now but believe
there is upside potential depending on how Covid-related work
unfolds over the year," Peel Hunt analyst Christopher Bamberry
said.
Although its first quarter was mainly boosted by work
related to COVID-19, Mitie said it was confident of its
full-year performance as the economy gradually recovers from the
pandemic, and as it had recently won "high-quality" contracts.
The company, whose customers include IKEA, Vodafone and Bank
of England, booked new contracts and renewals of up to 1.4
billion pounds in the quarter.
Mitie said its technical services division, which provides
building maintenance and engineering services, may not fully
recover to pre-pandemic levels this fiscal year as major
customers included pandemic-hit airports and office-based
businesses.
Rival Serco last month forecast a 50% jump in
first-half profit but warned that revenue from COVID-19 services
may ease in the second half.
($1 = 0.7255 pounds)
(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong in Bengaluru; Editing by
Ramakrishnan M., Shounak Dasgupta and David Evans)
