The scale of the knock British businesses are set to take from the government’s tax raid was laid bare today after facilities management firm Mitie Group warned of an eye-watering £50m hit from hikes to National Insurance Contributions (NICs).
The London-listed group’s latest estimate for the cost of rising NICs was slightly less than a prior £60m forecast, but will still take a significant chunk out of its profits.
Mitie Group said it anticipates operating profits of around £230m in 2025, up from £210m the year prior. The outsourcer raised its full-year profit guidance and unveiled a £125m share buyback programme.
Full-year revenue rose 13 per cent year-on-year to a record £5.1bn, ahead of previous guidance.
Mitie Group also announced a fresh £125m buyback programme, bringing its cumulative total since 2023 to £325m.
The company noted three acquisitions valued at around £50m had contributed to the strong revenue growth.
Shares are up around 10 per cent this year to date.
“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,” chief executive Phil Bentley said in a statement.
“These investments contributed to the delivery of good revenue and operating profit growth… 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.”
Mitie Group won a major £136m contract to deliver security services forr the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) last year.
Bentley said the firm had developed a “record pipeline of opportunities” and “good sales momentum” entering the new financial year.