Serco surges on £10bn future projects

SHARES in Serco jumped 7p to 213p today, close to a two-year high, after the public services conglomerate reported a 17% leap in pre-tax profits to £67m and a massive £10bn pipeline of work.

The order book - skewed towards the defence and transport industries - is the equivalent of seven years of annual turnover and it says 70% of its planned business as far out as 2006 is already in the bag.

The full-year dividend is up 12% to 2.34p.