Last updated 4th January 2018
Capita Plc
Capita Plc is a major support services group which works across a wide range of areas from soft facilities management to offshoring and across the built environment. Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure works with public bodies and private firms to design, build and optimise real estate and infrastructure assets. The firm is the market leader in strategic partnering with UK local authorities, providing a wide range of managed services including property, highways, regulatory services and development control.
Acquisitions in recent years have included Consructionline, the construction procurement portal for £35 million, BCS Design, a civil and geotechnical surveying firm and architects GL Hearn. Capita’s Transaction Advisory team was the independent certifier on the recently opened Mersey Gateway Bridge and the firm has worked on major infrastructure projects including HS2. Today the group is a strong player in the housing sector as an adviser and technology partner and a partner to Transport for London and should benefit from increased infrastructure spending.
Meanwhile, Capita/ESA ranked 57th in the 2017 recent AJ100 rankings of the UK’s largest architectural practices, with a total architectural fee income of £6.7 million.
As an overall group, Capita is the leading UK provider of business process management and integrated professional support service solutions, employing around 75,000 staff across the UK, Europe, South Africa and India. The group had a total bid pipeline in March 2017 of £3.8 billion, of which 61% was in the private sector.
Dave Spencer, who was previously MD of Amey’s consulting business, has recently rejoined Capital Real Estate and Infrastructure as managing director and Peter Trebilcock has recently been appointed as head of architecture at the division, which includes ESA Architects, with more than 25 years experience. Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure has also recently appointed Deborah McLaughlin as managing director of its real estate projects business, which focuses on the delivery of clients’ programmes and projects.
To view the financials for Capita Plc, visit Companies House and use Company ID 02081330.
Capita has faced some tough trading conditions in recent years, partly as local and national government budgets have come under pressure. In 2016, the group reported a 19% fall in underlying pre-tax profits to £475.3 million on a turnover up 5% at £4.898 billion. However the dividend was maintained and previously and the group secured £1.3 billion of major contract wins and extensions. The underlying trading profit at the group’s local government, property and health business was £64.1 million, down from £65.2 million previously,on underlying revenues of £639.6 million, down from £650.3 million. The fall was partly due to reduce volumes on large infrastructure projects although this is expected to pick up in 2017. Progress has continued and Capita’s underlying 2017 group first half pre-tax profits rose by 46% to £195 million. Net debt stood at £1,596 million, down from £1,901 million last time.
Capita’s property & infrastructure arm works for a wide range of sectors including central government, commercial property, defence, education
health, housing, local government, retail, sport, leisure and culture, transport, utilities and industrial.
Current key schemes where the group is involved include a jv between regeneration firm Menta and housebuilder Redrow, which has submitted a planning application for a major new housing-led regeneration scheme near East Croydon Station. Capita-owned consultancy GL Hearn and Make Architects have produced plans for Morello Quarter Phase II, which will involve 445 new homes and a new station bridge link. Elsewhere, GL Hearn has recently been expanding its office in the North West with new appointments.
Early in Autumn 2017, GL Hearn also submitted a planning application for Danescroft Land, a £210m residential-led scheme in Bromley-by-Bow, East London. It involves a 26-storey tower on the site on Imperial Street with 500 new homes and over 38,427 sq ft of flexible community, commercial and retail space. Constructin is expected to start towards the end of 2018.
Meanwhile, in early Autumn 2017 Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure won a place on Fusion21’s national consultants framework for the public sector. Worth up to £90m over a four year period, the framework covers consultancy services including surveying, environmental, architectural, engineering, project management and multi-disciplinary works. Capita’s has also secured a further position on the Government’s Crown Commercial Service (CCS) procurement framework, covering some £1.6 – £2.8bn of commercial and procurement activity, running over the next two years and possibly longer.
Meanwhile, in Spring 2017 Capita Real Estate and Infrastructure was appointed by Santander UK plc to provide corporate real estate services across its UK portfolio over the next three years and providing a full range of professional services.
Meanwhile, the group is a strategic business partner for the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), on a 10 year contract worth around £400m where Capita leads a partnership of two sub-contractors, URS and PA Consulting, to manage and transform the UK’s defence infrastructure. It also has major ongoing contracts with numerous local authorities including Breckland, Glamorgan, North Tyneside and Oxfordshire. Capita was heavily involved in the BBC’s move to Media City in Manchester, under a £210m framework contract.
Today, the group has partnerships with Blackburn with Darwen Council to help develop its land and assets and an Urban Vision partnership in Salford, a jv with the city council and Galliford Try which has been renewed for three years.
Capita also works for many of the UK’s largest investment funds, property companies and retailers. It has been involved in hq buildings for Eversheds and Stryker UK and acquisitions programmes for retailers such as Abercrombie & Fitch as well as workplace strategies for major employers such as Network Rail and Bupa.
In transport, Capita is designing the Country North section of High Speed 2, a 78km section of rail through Warwickshire and Staffordshire. Capita is also a key consultant on Crossrail, designing the Royal Oak, Woolwich and Plumstead portals. On roads, the company is working with the Highways Agency to introduce smart motorways.
Capita works widely across the health and education sectors and has provided design, project management and other services for 60 academies and nine free schools. Meanwhile, Capita has a significant retail operation covering the design and project management of developments. It manages more than 125 shopping centres and retail parks, covering 14 m sq ft in the UK, Europe and Middle East and clients include Sainsburys and McDonalds.
Capita also designs and builds major infrastructure for the industrial and utility sectors. It is the National Grid’s property services provider, managing a £400 million portfolio of surplus sites and is responsible for some 500 brownfield sites across the UK.
Glenigan Data
Figures from Glenigan highlight the scale and variety of the work in hand at Capita, particularly in London. They show that Capita Property &Infrastructure is involved as the M&E consultant on a a project manager on a £18 million sports building at Gunnersbury Park in Ealing where Kier Construction is expected to be the contractor and work is set to start in early 2018. Capita is involved as the quantity surveyor in a £20 million office fit-out at 160 Aldersgate Street, where work is set to start in late 2017. Glenigan data also highlights Capita’s involvement as a project manager in the £330 million refurbishment and upgrade of Manchester Town Hall, where work is set to start in Autumn 2019.
Conclusion: Major force in the outsourcing sector
Trading conditions might have got tougher for Capita recently but managers in national and local government and the private sector continue to recognise the advantages of oursourcing property services, rather than running in-house teams. As well as working on major ongoing government contracts – notably for the Ministry of Defence – the group’s property & infrastructure arm is a significant force in the design/consultancy sector in its own right. Today, the group has a healthy work pipeline. As pressures on public sector budgets are likely to sustain the trend towards outsourcing and as its project management and design skills are increasingly recognised by private sector developers, the group’s long term prospects remain solid.
Full contact details for all of the offices across Capita Real Estate & Infrastructure are available via the group’s website. Contacts can be made via region, sector and expertise and found at www.capitaproperty.co.uk
For general enquiries about Capita procurement solutions operations please email: buyingsolutionsrm457@capita.co.uk
Key Capita contacts include:
Dave Spencer – Managing Director, Capita Real Estate & Infrastructure.
0207 799 1525
Peter Trebilcock – Head of Architecture at Capita ESA
0207 709 4500
Andrew Rockett (Director, Capita Property & Infrastructure)
0207 709 4500