Capita share price falls off a cliff following damning CEO report

Outsourcing giant sees shares plummet over 40 per cent as new CEO says business is spread too thinly, hasn't invested enough, and has focused too much on acquisitions

Capita's share price has tanked by over 40 per cent after its new CEO said "significant change" is needed to get the outsourcing giant back on track.

Jonathan Lewis, who joined as chief executive in December, said Capita is "too widely spread" across multiple markets, making it "challenging" to operate.

He also claimed that previous management had failed to invest enough to keep pace with changing markets, and that too much emphasis has been placed on growth through acquisition, rather than organically.

Capita's share price fell over 43 per cent when the London Stock Exchange opened for trading this morning, to its lowest price in 15 years.

Lewis said: "Today Capita is too complex, it is driven by a short-term focus and lacks operational discipline and financial flexibility.

"Capita needs to change its approach. I have initiated a transformation programme, appointed a chief transformation officer and formed a new executive committee to drive this change. I believe that this transformation programme can significantly improve the performance of Capita.

"An immediate priority is to strengthen the balance sheet through a combination of cost savings, non-core disposals and new equity."

Lewis said that Capita will look to offload "a small number" of non-core divisions of the business, citing ParkingEye and Constructiononline specifically.

For its 2018 outlook Capita said it has suffered "a higher level of attrition" than expected since its last trading update in December, driven by delays in decision making and a weakness in new sales, which is set to lead to a "significant impact on profits".

It highlighted the IT services division as a unit that will likely be affected, citing GDPR in particular as a troublesome factor.

TechMarketView research director Marc Hardwick said the update makes "depressing" reading for investors.

"New CEO Jonathan Lewis has clearly been very busy undertaking a strategic review of the business since he came on board at the beginning of last month," he said.

"We now know the results of Lewis' strategic review make for depressing reading. Debt is still too high and the business has consistently underinvested, spread itself too thin across too many markets, remains complex to manage, and unfocused. Too much emphasis has been placed on acquisitions for growth and it has now been exposed that big new sales are proving elusive.

"Lewis really does have his work cut out getting Capita match fit for today's market conditions."