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London - Outsourcing group Serco said it was working with Britain's government to fix any wrongdoing that is discovered from a raft of reviews into its contracts.
Serco, which makes around 45% of its revenue from UK public sector work, is facing a slew of government contract reviews and threats of exclusion from future deals after serious faults were found in its delivery of electronic tagging and prisoner escort services.
The British group, which runs facilities from Britain's Atomic Weapons Establishment to immigration detention centres in Australia, on Thursday reported adjusted pretax profit was £127.1m ($197.46m) in the six months to June 30, up 10.5% from 2012 and in line with its expectations.
Adjusted revenue grew 11.8% to £2.55bn helped by a record amount of work won in 2012 but the firm said its operating margin fell 23 basis points to 5.7% due to increased investment in bidding for new work.
Serco said it was on track for the full year and pointed to an order book of £18.5bn and a £30bn pipeline of bid opportunities as cause for a positive outlook.
However, things have turned gloomier at home. Having reached a year high of 689.45 pence on July 9 Serco's share price has tumbled after Britain put its contracts under review following an audit which found it, and rival G4S, had charged for tagging criminals who were either dead, in prison or never tagged in the first place.
On Wednesday, the firm faced being banned from bidding for UK government contracts after the justice ministry asked police to investigate alleged fraudulent behaviour by some Serco staff working on a prisoner escorting contract.
Outsourcing of public services remains fiercely debated in Britain given the involvement of profit-driven private companies, while Serco's tagging problems have also drawn criticism in the United States where it has won a $1.25bn contract to help implement new online health insurance exchanges.
Shares in Serco closed at 606.5 pence on Wednesday, valuing the business at £3bn.
