Interserve headline profit rises, has record future workload

LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - British support services group Interserve plc (LSE: IRV.L - news) posted a 31 percent rise in headline pretax profit to 106.2 million pounds for 2014, and said it had a record future workload of 8.1 billion pounds.

The company, which provides employment assistance schemes for the government, cleaning services for London Underground and facilities management for the BBC, said it had delivered organic revenue growth of 10 percent.

Total (Swiss: FP.SW - news) revenue rose by a third to 2.9 billion pounds, helped by the acquisitions of Initial Facilities and the Employment & Skills Group.

Exceptional costs and amortization, mainly associated with the Initial acquisition resulted in a 9 percent fall in pretax profit to 61.9 million pounds, it said.

Interserve said in a separate statement that its chairman Norman Blackwell planned to step down before its 2016 annual meeting and it would start a search for his replacement in the coming months.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Sarah Young)