More than £1bn in new business for Capita

RUNNING the John Lewis website and collecting the London congestion charge helped outsourcer Capita notch up more than £1bn of fresh work so far in 2014.

The figure is almost double the amount won in the same period last year, after Capita picked up seven contracts.

Under a five-year deal with Transport for London, won back from IBM, Capita will monitor and collect the congestion charge and police the capital’s low emissions zone.

Capita also has £5.5bn of potential work in the pipeline, compared to £4.2bn a year before.

The company is eyeing 25 contracts, with more than 90pc being new business.

In the public sector Capita has been helped by the fact two close rivals – G4S and Serco – were both blacklisted after they charged the taxpayer for monitoring criminals who had died.

Capita also spent £201m this year on six new acquisitions, mostly in IT as well as one in mortgage processing. Shares, up a fifth in the past 12 months, climbed 15p to 1197p. NISSAN, which builds one in three of the cars manufactured in the UK, reported a 5pc rise in profits as sales grew around the world.

The company said profits for the January-March period totalled £652m as quarterly sales rose more than 20pc to £18.4bn.

Global chief executive Carlos Ghosn said sales growth was outpacing the industry and expects to grow even more this year.

Nissan forecast annual net profit of £2.4bn – up 4pc on the previous year.

The firm sold 5.2m vehicles in the year ending in March, controlling about 6.2pc of the global car market. Nissan expects to sell 5.65m in the year to March 2015, which would raise global market share to 6.7pc.

Ghosn said the results were ‘satisfactory’ but still fall short of potential.

‘This means pursuing profitable growth opportunities, focusing relentlessly on quality and enhancing our sales power,’ he said.

Nissan’s Sunderland plant produces the Qashqai, Note and Juke and the 100pc electric LEAF.

The factory exports 80pc of production to 97 markets worldwide.