Mitie lifts profit outlook, announces £125m share buyback

(Sharecast News) - Outsourcer Mitie lifted its full-year profit guidance on Wednesday following "continued good momentum" in the fourth quarter, and announced the launch of a £125m share buyback. In an update for the year to the end of March 2025, the company said revenue rose around 13% on the previous year to a record £5.1bn, with fourth-quarter revenue growth of approximately 9%, ahead of guidance and reflecting good projects demand.

For the year, it now expects operating profit of around £230m, up from £210m in FY24.

Mitie also reduced its estimate for the cost increase from the rise in employers' National Insurance contributions in FY26 to around £50m, from an initial estimate of £60m.

The company announced the launch of a new £125m share buyback programme, bringing the cumulative total undertaken since FY23 to £325m.

Chief executive Phil Bentley said: "FY25 was the foundation year of our new Three-Year Plan, improving the strength of the Mitie platform and investing in our capabilities to accelerate Facilities Transformation for our customers.

"These investments contributed to the delivery of good revenue and operating profit growth. I'm also pleased that our telecoms projects business, which has negatively impacted margins, returned to breakeven in Q4. Our good underlying cash generation and low leverage has enabled us to sustain a proactive capital deployment policy with our largest share buyback programme now complete and a new £125m programme launched today.

"We are entering FY26 with good sales momentum, including the new security contract win with DWP, a record pipeline of opportunities and a strategic focus on how AI and intelligent process automation can help to deliver margins above 5% by FY27. We continue to evaluate strategic M&A opportunities in our targeted sectors. With this positive outlook, we remain confident in delivering our Facilities Transformation 3-Year Plan targets."