Business news in brief
Uber CEO says no change in India business after SoftBank deal
Uber does not expect any change in its India operations following an investment deal with Japan’s SoftBank Group, which also has a stake in the US firm’s India rival Ola, Uber’s chief executive said yesterday. India is one of Uber’s fastest-growing international markets and accounts for more than 10 per cent of Uber’s trips globally, but it’s not making money yet, Dara Khosrowshahi told reporters in New Delhi in his first visit to India since he became Uber CEO last year.
Both Uber and India’s market leader Ola are backed by SoftBank and have been locked in a fierce battle, pumping in millions of dollars of investors’ money for a bigger piece of the country’s $12bn (£8.6bn) taxi market. Reuters
MoneySuperMarket warns on growth
Price-comparison site MoneySuperMarket reported lower-than-expected annual profits and said earnings are expected to be “broadly flat” in 2018. It said it expected to grow more slowly in 2018 than the 6 per cent to 7 per cent forecast for the price-comparison market overall.
The group added: “We have started the year at a similar growth rate to last year. This means that adjusted Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) for 2018 is expected to be broadly flat before growth resumes from 2019 onwards.” It reported a 5.3 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £96.1m for 2017 and pledged to spend £5m on boosting its product engineering teams to improve customer experience. But the firm also cautioned that plans to revamp the business would cost up to £9m in 2018. PA
Serco expects to withstand bumpy UK outsourcing road
Serco said it expected to emerge as one of the winners from the turmoil hitting the outsourcing sector, after it reported 2017 results in line with its expectations and predicted profit growth for the next two years. Serco, which provides justice, transport, defence and welfare services for governments across the world, is in the latter stages of a five-year restructuring, started after it ran into the kind of problems which led to the demise of rival Carillion in January.
“We understand that (Serco) getting to this point has been a long haul for investors, and that there is still a long, and probably bumpy, road ahead before we are producing acceptable returns. But we are now moving forward, not backward,” chief executive Rupert Soames said in a statement. Reuters
Recruiter Hays reports higher first-half profit
Recruiter Hays posted a 16 per cent rise in first-half profit, helped by growth in its international business and cost controls in its domestic market, where hiring has been hit by uncertainty since Britain voted to leave the EU. The company, which places workers in areas such as finance and IT, said group operating profit rose to £116.5m in the six months ended 31 December, from £100m a year ago. On a like-for-like basis, profit rose 14 per cent. “The outlook in the vast majority of our markets remains positive and we have made an encouraging start to our new five-year plan to broadly double our operating profits by 2022,” chief executive Alistair Cox said.