Endless to snap up £25m recruitment division
Private equity house Endless is said to be circling for the recruitment division of Capita, valued at around £25m.
The outsourcing group has entered into negotiations with Leeds-based Endless to acquire the business, which trades as Capita Specialist Recruitment, according to Sky News.
The services group had a difficult year in 2016 when it was downgraded from the FTSE100. Earlier this month, chief executive Andy Parker stepped down after the company was being forced to write down £50m of assets from as far back as 2009.
Group pre-tax profits subsequently fell 33% to £74.8m, also suffering a weak performance from its IT and recruitment divisions.
Capita Resourcing Ltd itself, which trades as Capita Specialist Recruitment, turned over £271.5m in its most recent published accounts for 2015, down £4m on the year before.
Chairman Ian Powell is set to be undertaking a turnaround of the business, with the disposal of the recruitment division the first major move. He is also looking to sell off the fund administration business for around £600m.
Endless have been contacted for comment, but had not replied by the time of publication.
Recently the private equity investor has been linked with a takeover at struggling retail group Mosaic which includes Warehouse and Oasis, and completed a £180m sale off Karro Food Group to CapVest.
Capita plc’s share price, for the year to May 2017. Graph courtesy of the London Stock Exchange
