Serco Group
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Serco Group plc is a business services company based in the London suburb of Richmond upon Thames. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
Serco was founded in 1929 as 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 stock exchange listed company since 1988. Serco operates in Continental Europe, the Middle East, the Asia Pacific region and North America, but the majority of its turnover still comes from the UK. Its clients are mainly in the public sector. Its growth has been aided by the trend towards outsourcing. Its activities include technical support for the British Ministry of Defence, IT support services, air traffic control and road traffic management systems. It operates London's Docklands Light Railway, the Copenhagen Metro, the Great Southern Railway in Australia and the Manchester Metrolink In the UK. It also operates the civilian part of Newquay Cornwall International Airport, an airport shared with the RAF
Serco's joint ventures include:
- with NedRailways, the international arm of Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen; they have been granted a concession for 25 years for Merseyrail, Liverpool, UK, and operate Northern Rail services in the north of England.
- with SNC-Lavalin, for construction and operation of the Canada Line of the SkyTrain in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. (They pulled out of this partnership before final signing of the contract)
- with Sodexho, for defence garrison support services within Australia.
Serco Group also owns Premier Monitoring, a company involved in offender tagging in the UK.
Serco manages a large section of the Nuclear Safety Industry formerly part of UKAEA and CEGB.
Serco's turnover for the year to was £1,381 million. Profits were £57.3 million before tax and £36.0 million after tax.
