The Directors present their Strategic report and financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.
Ventura (UK) India Limited ('the Company') is a wholly owned subsidiary (indirectly held) of Capita plc. Capita plc, along with all its subsidiaries' is hereafter referred to as 'the Group'. The Company operates within the Capita Experience division of the Group.
As shown in Company's income statement on page 9, profit and loss before tax has improved from loss before tax of £2,498,242 in 2022 to profit before tax of £2,117,048 in 2023 mainly on account of dividends received which are offset by increased finance costs incurred during the current year.
The balance sheet on page 10 of the financial statements shows the Company's financial position at the year end. Net assets have increased from £36,550,491 in 2022 to £38,940,473 in 2023 on account of profit earned by the Company during the year.
Details of the amounts owed to its parent company and fellow subsidiary companies are shown in note 9 to the financial statements.
The Company has not identified any key performance indicators due to the nature of its operations as an investment holding company and as described in the principal activities and review of business above.
The Company is exposed to a range of risks that, should they materialise, could have a detrimental impact on financial performance, reputation or operational resilience. The Company’s risk management framework provides a consistent approach to the identification, assessment, monitoring and reporting of risks and opportunities. The risk management process is based on risk registers and risk reporting at the established risk governance committees. Key risks are documented in the risk registers and have assigned risk owners who review them regularly, and report on them on at least a quarterly basis, as part of the risk reporting process. The strength of existing controls is evaluated to determine whether any further mitigating actions are needed to manage the risk level to within the risk appetite set by the Board.
As a holding company, majority of Company’s assets consists of investments in subsidiary undertakings, accordingly principal risks of the Company relate to its inability to recover the carrying value of its investments due to adverse conditions in markets where its subsidiaries operate.
The principal themes of risks for the Company are:
Financial stability
Maintain financial stability and achieve financial targets.
Cyber security
Protect our systems, networks and programs from unauthorised use and access.
ESG
Comply with regulatory and contractual requirements to drive a purpose driven organisation with the right focus on governance.
Data governance and data privacy
Manage our data effectively as a strategic asset across the organisation.
As a subsidiary of Capita plc, the Company is subject to controls and risk governance techniques across all businesses. Details of the specific risk assessments and mitigating actions are outlined on pages 57-63 of the Group's 2023 Annual Report.
Capita plc’s section 172 statement applies to the Company to the extent it relates to the Company’s activities. Common policies and practices are applied across the Group through divisional management teams and a common governance framework. The following disclosure describes how the Directors have regard to the matters set out in section 172(1)(a) to (f) and forms the Directors’ statement as required under section 414CZA of the Companies Act 2006.
Further details of the Group’s approach to each stakeholder are provided in Capita plc’s section 172 statement on pages 45, 46 and 47 of Capita plc’s 2023 Annual Report.
Our People
Why they are important
They deliver our business strategy; they support the organisation to build a values-based culture; and they deliver our products and services ensuring client satisfaction.
What matters to them
Flexible working; learning and development opportunities leading to career progression; fair pay and benefits as a reward for performance; and two-way communication and feedback.
How we engaged
People surveys
Regular all-employee communications
Employee director on the Capita plc Board
Employee focus groups and network groups
Workforce engagement on remuneration
Regular ‘breakfast’ sessions with the Executive Committee for our colleagues
Topics of engagement
Creating an inclusive workplace
Health and wellbeing
Speak Up policy
Directors’ remuneration
Acting on survey feedback
The career path framework
The redundancy consultation programme announced in November 2023
Outcomes and actions
The 2023 employee survey showed key indices had either improved or remained steady with a five-point increase in the eNPS compared with 2022. 63% of colleagues who responded felt proud to work at Capita. We are developing and delivering a range of action plans, including ensuring our leaders feel confidence in, and ownership of Capita’s strategy, plans and successes, developing inclusive opportunities for internal career mobility.
In December 2023, the Board agreed that while the appointment of employee directors had been successful, it was appropriate for the Board to consider a wider level of engagement with colleagues, including site visits arranged for individual directors to meet with local management and colleagues at Capita’s businesses. In addition, the Board has appointed Nneka Abulokwe as the designated non-executive director to engage with colleagues. Adolfo Hernandez, our new CEO, has also commenced a series of breakfast sessions to meet with colleagues of differing seniority and at different locations throughout the Group. Janine Goodchild stepped down from the Board as an employee director on 31 December 2023.
The UK real living wage increase was applied from 1 April 2023. At the end of 2023, we took the difficult decision to withdraw from the UK’s real living wage. Since 2020, the Group has increased the salaries of our lowest earners by 22% and the 2024 real living wage increase of 10.1% was not something we could commit to given the need for Capita to remain cost competitive and reflecting the fact that this is not a cost we are able to pass on to clients.
The global career path framework which defines career levels, career job content, and reward framework within Capita was launched during the year.
In October 2023, Capita was recognised by Forbes, as being one of the top companies for women, ranking at number 18 out of 400 global companies on their list.
We continued to promote our Speak Up policy throughout the organisation.
Risks to stakeholder relationship
Our ability to recruit due to the national and global labour market demand for resources
Our ability to retain and develop people, impacting our quality of service and our financial performance
Our ability to evolve our culture and practices in line with our responsible business agenda
Key metrics
Voluntary attrition, employee NPS, employee engagement Index and people survey completion level.
Clients and customers
Why they are important
They are recipients of Capita’s services; and Capita’s reputation depends on consistent and timely delivery of the services they need from us.
What matters to them
High-quality service delivery; delivery of transformation projects within agreed timeframes; and responsible and sustainable business credentials.
How we engaged
Client meetings and surveys
Regular meetings with government stakeholders and annual review with the Cabinet Office
Through our customer advisory boards
Through our senior client partner programme giving an experienced single point of contact for key clients and customers
Introductory meetings and correspondence with the new CEO
Topics of engagement
Current service delivery
Transition and mobilisation of services
Capita’s digital transformation capabilities
Possible future services
Co-creation of client value propositions
The cyber incident
Ongoing benefits of hybrid working on client services
Outcomes and actions
Feedback provided to business units to address any issues raised; client value proposition teams supporting divisions with co-creation ideas; direct customer and sector feedback; and senior client partner programme undertaking client-focused growth sprints to build understanding of client issues and ideas to help address them.
Risks to stakeholder relationship
Loss of business by not providing the services that our clients and customers want
Damage to reputation by not delivering to the requirements of our clients and customers
Loss of customers for our clients
Key metrics
Customer NPS; specific feedback on client engagements.
Suppliers and Partners
Why they are important
They share our values and help us deliver our purpose; maintain high standards in our supply chain; and achieve social, economic and environmental benefits aligned to the Social Value Act. Our suppliers and partners provide additional expertise, skill and technology, elevating our offering.
What matters to them
Payments made within agreed payment terms; clear and fair procurement process; building lasting commercial relationships; and working inclusively with all types of business.
How we engaged
Supplier meetings throughout source to procure process
Regular reviews with suppliers
Supplier questionnaires and risk assessments
Topics of engagement
New Digital offerings for clients
Supplier payments
Sourcing requirements
Supplier performance
Responsible Business
Science based targets (SBTs)
The cyber incident
Outcomes and actions
Our supplier charter, which is available on our website, remains at the core of strengthening our commitments and sets out how we conduct business in an open, honest and transparent manner, and what we expect of our suppliers. This year, it was refreshed and relaunched.
To understand Capita’s Scope 3 carbon footprint, a supplier engagement programme was also undertaken with suppliers accounting for £1bn annual spend (over 50% of the supply chain by spend) to ask them to disclose their carbon emissions to CDP.
During 2023, 99% of our suppliers were paid within 60 days.
Risks to stakeholder relationship
Environmental issues
Commitment to tackling SBTs
Supply chain resilience
Key metrics
99% of supplier payments within agreed terms; SME spend allocation; and supplier diversity profile.
Society
Why they are important
Capita is a provider of key services to government impacting a large proportion of the population.
What matters to them
Social mobility; youth skills and jobs; digital inclusion; diversity and inclusion; climate change; business ethics; accreditations and benchmarking; and cost of living crisis.
How we engaged
Membership of non-governmental organisations
Charitable and community partnerships
External accreditations and benchmarking
Working with clients, suppliers and the Cabinet Office
Topics of engagement
Youth employment
Workplace inequalities
Diversity & inclusion
Climate change
Outcomes and actions
Youth and employability programme such as Social Shifters; ranked 18 on the Forbes Global list of top employers for women; a 5% reduction in our gender pay gap (compared with 2022); awarded Employer’s Network for Equality and Inclusion; achieved a silver Tidemark and an A CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) score as well as a silver medal in EcoVadis for Capita plc.
Risks to stakeholder relationship
Lack of understanding of the issues important to them
Insufficient communication or involvement in shaping and influencing strategies and plans
Key metrics
Community investment, workforce diversity and ethnicity data, including pay gaps.
On behalf of the Board
The Directors present their Directors' Report and Financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2023.
The results for the year are set out on page 9.
No dividends were paid or proposed during the year (2022: £nil).
The Directors who held office during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were as follows:
The Directors are responsible for preparing the Strategic report, the Directors’ report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and regulations.
Company law requires the directors to prepare financial statements for each financial year. Under that law they have elected to prepare the financial statements in accordance with United Kingdom ('UK') accounting standards and applicable law (UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice), including FRS 101 Reduced Disclosure Framework.
Under company law the Directors must not approve the financial statements unless they are satisfied that they give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Company and of its profit or loss for that period. In preparing these financial statements, the Directors are required to:
select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
state whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements; and
assess the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and use the going concern basis of accounting unless they either intend to liquidate the Company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.
The Directors are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that are sufficient to show and explain the Company’s transactions and disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Company and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are responsible for such internal control as they determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and have general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably open to them to safeguard the assets of the Company and to prevent and detect fraud and other irregularities.
Ultimate parent undertaking – Capita plc
The Capita plc Board (‘the Board’) concluded that it was appropriate to adopt the going concern basis, having undertaken a rigorous assessment of the financial forecasts, key uncertainties, sensitivities, and mitigations when preparing the Group’s consolidated financial statements for the period ended 30 June 2024. These condensed consolidated financial statements were approved by the Board on 1 August 2024 and are available on the Group’s website (www.capita.com/investors). Below is a summary of the position at 1 August 2024:
Accounting standards require that ‘the foreseeable future’ for going concern assessment covers a period of at least twelve months from the date of approval of these condensed consolidated financial statements, although those standards do not specify how far beyond twelve months a Board should consider. In its going concern assessment, the Board has considered the period from the date of approval of these condensed consolidated financial statements to 31 December 2025, which aligns with a period end and covenant test date for the Group.
The base case financial forecasts used in the going concern assessment are derived from financial projections for 2024-2025 as approved by the Board in June 2024.
The going concern assessment considers the Group’s sources and uses of liquidity and covenant compliance throughout the period under review.
Board Assessment
Under the base case scenario, the Group’s transformation programme and completion of the Portfolio non-core business disposal programme in January 2024 has simplified and strengthened the business and facilitates further efficiency savings enabling sustainable growth in revenue, profit and cash flow over the medium term. When combined with available committed facilities, this allows the Group to manage scheduled debt repayments. The most material sensitivities to the base case are the risk of not delivering the planned revenue growth and efficiency savings from the Group's previously announced restructuring programme.
The base case projections used for going concern assessment purposes reflect business disposals completed up to the date of approval of these condensed financial statements and the agreed sale of the Capita One business because the completion of the disposal has been assessed to be highly probable. The liquidity headroom assessment in the base case projections reflects the Group’s existing committed financing facilities and debt redemptions and does not reflect any potential future refinancing. The base case financial forecasts demonstrate liquidity headroom and compliance with all debt covenant measures throughout the going concern period to 31 December 2025.
In considering severe but plausible downside scenarios, the Board has taken account of the potential adverse financial impacts resulting from the following risks:
revenue growth falling materially short of plan;
operating profit margin expansion not being achieved;
targeted cost savings delayed and/or not delivered;
unforeseen operational issues leading to contract losses and cash outflows;
sustained interest rates at current levels;
non-availability of the Group’s non-recourse receivables financing facility; and
unexpected financial costs linked to incidents such as data breaches and/or cyber-attacks.
The likelihood of simultaneous crystallisation of the above risks is considered by the directors to be low. Nevertheless, in the event that simultaneous crystallisation were to occur, the Group would need to take action to mitigate the risk of insufficient liquidity and covenant headroom. In its assessment of going concern, the Board has considered the mitigations, under the direct control of the Group, that could be implemented including reductions or delays in capital investment, substantially reducing (or removing in full) bonus and incentive payments. The Board considered the impact of the above risks and mitigations on the Group both in the scenario where the Capita One disposal does occur, and if it were not to occur. In the event of the simultaneous crystallisation of risks and the Capita One disposal does not complete, the Board also considered the ability of the Group to refinance a portion of the 2025 maturing debt. Taking these mitigations into account, the Group’s financial forecasts, in a severe but plausible downside scenario, demonstrate sufficient liquidity headroom and compliance with all debt covenant measures throughout the going concern period to 31 December 2025.
Adoption of going concern basis by the Group:
Reflecting the levels of liquidity and covenant headroom in the base case and severe but plausible downside scenario, the Group continues to adopt the going concern basis in preparing these condensed consolidated financial statements. The Board has concluded that the Group will be able to continue in operation and meet its liabilities as they fall due over the period to 31 December 2025.
Conclusion
Although the Company has a reliance on the Group as detailed above, even in a severe but plausible downside for both the Company and the Group, the Directors are confident the Company will continue to have adequate financial resources to continue in operation and discharge its liabilities as they fall due over the period to 31 December 2025 (the ‘going concern period’). Consequently, the Annual Report and financial statements have been prepared on the going concern basis.
The Company has applied FRS101 – Reduced Disclosure Framework in the preparation of its financial statements.
The Company has prepared and presented these financial statements by applying the recognition, measurement and disclosure requirements of international accounting standards in conformity with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 .
The Company's ultimate parent company, Capita plc, includes the Company in its consolidated statements. The consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with international accounting standards in conformity with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 and with UK-adopted International Financial Reporting Standards ('IFRSs') and the Disclosure and the Transparency Rules of the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. They are available to the public and may be obtained from Capita plc’s website on https://www.capita.com/investors .
In these financial statements, the Company has applied the disclosure exemptions available under FRS 101 in respect of the following disclosures:
A cash flow statement and related notes;
Comparative period reconciliations for share capital;
Disclosures in respect of transactions with wholly owned subsidiaries;
Disclosures in respect of capital management;
The effects of new but not yet effective IFRSs; and
Disclosures in respect of the compensation of key management personnel.
Since the consolidated financial statements of Capita plc include equivalent disclosures, the Company has also taken the disclosure exemptions under FRS 101 available in respect of the following disclosure:
Certain disclosures required by IFRS 2 Share-based Payment in respect of Group settled share based payments;
Certain disclosures required by IAS 36 Impairment of Assets in respect of the impairment of goodwill, indefinite life intangible assets and investment in subsidiaries;
Certain disclosures required by IFRS 3 Business Combinations in respect of business combinations undertaken by the Company, including a comparative period reconciliation of goodwill; and
Certain disclosures required by IFRS 7 Financial Instrument Disclosures and certain disclosure exemptions as permitted by IFRS 13 Fair value measurement.
Impairment of investment in subsidiaries: The Company determines whether investments in subsidiaries are impaired based on impairment indicators. If an indicator is identified, an impairment test is performed. This involves estimation of the enterprise value of the investee which is determined based on the greater of discounted future cash flows at a suitable discount rate or through the recoverable value of the investments held by the investee company. The key assumptions underpinning the forecast cash flows of subsidiaries include sales growth and execution of targeted cost savings, including in respect to central Group recharges.
During the year, the Company received dividend from its subsidiaries Ventura India Private Limited and Capita India Private Limited amounting to £3,076,177 and £3,298,806 respectively.
The credit for the year can be reconciled to the profit/(loss) per the income statement as follows:
Registered office addresses:
All directors are paid by other companies within the Capita Group. The Company has not paid any fees or other remuneration to the Group based Directors related to the directorship role they provided to the Company as a part of their Group-wide executive management role. The Company has estimated that allocation of the qualifying services that these Group based Directors provided to the Company is inconsequential.
The company's immediate parent undertaking is Capita Customer Management Limited, a company incorporated in England and Wales.
The company's ultimate parent undertaking is Capita plc, a company incorporated in England and Wales. The financial statements of Capita plc are available from the registered office at 65 Gresham Street, London, England, EC2V 7NQ.