Chief executive behind the rise and rise of Capita steps down

Mr Pindar, 54, a trained accountant, will step down early next year and will be replaced by deputy chief executive Andy Parker on March 1.

He has been chief executive since 1999, having joined in 1987 when working for 3i as an adviser in the company’s management buyout.

Capita listed on the London stock market in 1991 with a turnover of £25m, but is now worth more than £6bn and employs 62,000 people worldwide.

The company, whose contracts include an eight-year deal to administer the TV licensing service for the BBC, has been in the FTSE 100 Index since 2004.

Mr Pindar said he will leave the company in February to establish a portfolio of private equity opportunities.

“After 26 years with the company and approaching my fiftieth results presentation, I believe that now is the right time to hand the reins over to Andy,” he said

“I will be leaving Capita with a strong management team and in excellent financial and operational shape for further success in 2014 and beyond.”

Mr Parker had been suggested as a possible candidate to take over the vacant chief executive’s post at troubled rival Serco, which has been dogged with controversies over its handling of key Government contracts.

In contrast to Serco, which last week issued a profits warning, Capita said in a trading update yesterday it has secured £2.9bn of major new contract wins with clients including the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the Ministry of Justice and telecoms firm O2.

The company is sticking to its forecast for eight per cent organic sales growth this year.

Investec analyst Andrew Gibb said of Mr Pindar: “He has been pivotal not only in managing the group through its exceptional growth phase, but also in steering it through more challenging times recently.”

Analysts agreed that he will leave the group, which employs 8,000 staff across six sites in Yorkshire, in a strong position.

It is on track for eight per cent organic revenue growth in 2013 and it has a good relationship with the Government, which accounts for 15 per cent of its revenue.

Liberum Capital analyst David Brockton said: “Paul has been instrumental to the success that Capita has achieved and therefore his departure is a disappointment.

“I would be very surprised if this was a board decision. This will be Paul’s own decision to leave.”

Capita has managed to avoid the scandals that have hit some of its big rivals, like Serco and G4S, but it could meet difficulties going forward from growing scepticism about the role of a small number of giant contractors in providing public services.

Last week, a Government auditor review of Britain’s use of big companies to run services from prisons to hospitals raised questions about whether the rise of a few major contractors is in the public interest.

Thanks to its rapid expansion, Capita operates in just about every sector in the UK, where it earns 96 per cent of its revenue.

It grew from a local authority contractor to making revenues of £3.4bn last year. Its work ranges from evaluating whether disability claimants deserve benefits, running the pension scheme for the Ministry of Defence, providing radios for police forces and designing tunnel portals for London’s Crossrail trains.

His replacement Mr Parker joined the group in 2001 and was appointed to the board in 2011.

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