Serco reported pre-tax profits up 14.5% to £29.3m on turnover of £807.5m (1998 - £687.8m) for 1999. Executive Chairman Richard White said: "With our global reach and ability to handle operations on the scale of the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment, we are a highly credible contender for very large challenges such as the UK's National Air Traffic Services Public Private Partnership and the many large PFIs currently under discussion."

Serco is bidding for major PPP projects such as
National Air Traffic Services

The Group expects strong growth to continue this year and says it has been winning new business at an increasing rate, retaining over 90% of contracts.

Serco won its largest contract win ever for the management of the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston. The contract includes a 25-year Public Private Partnership (PPP) option to add private finance to accelerate development of the site.

As part of the Servus consortium Serco has been shortlisted for the STEPS programme, under which the contractor will assume ownership of the entire Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise property portfolios and provide office facilities to meet both organisations' requirements. The company has also moved into the rail infrastructure maintenance market.

Serco won FM contracts from several blue-chip customers during 1999, including Boots the Chemists, Ericsson, IBM and Microsoft, and expects this success to continue through 2000.

Richard Byatt